8.6 Gravitational Waves (GWs)
A gravitational wave is a stretching and compressing of space-time and can be observed by measuring the change in length between two objects.
Gravitational waves (GWs) are actually:
"Ripples in the fabric of space-time, produced by violent cosmic events, like colliding black holes or neutron stars that travel at the speed of light, carrying information about their source."
The simplest example to understand GWs is given below:
If we throw a stone into a pond, the stone creates ripples on the water surface (space-time). These ripples travel outward, carrying information about the stone (the cosmic event). They can be detected on the shore by (gravitational wave observatories), revealing the stone's presence and properties.