All of us have some sense of the limitless expanse of the Universe. When it is considered together with the flow of time, it is called spacetime – the fabric of the cosmos. This fabric bends around massive objects, much like a soft pillow dips down once we rest our head on it. The greater the mass of an object, the greater is the curvature or bending of spacetime around it.
If a massive object is in accelerated motion, it will generate ripples in the fabric, much like the ripples on the surface of a pond when a pebble is dropped into it. These ripples distort the spacetime fabric and are called gravitational waves. In the cosmos, gravitational waves are the outcome of far-flung cataclysmic events like powerful supernovae and the collision of black holes or neutron stars.
Studying gravitational waves can help us delve deep into the history of the Universe and help us understand why it is the way it is.
