1.3 billion years ago,
two orbiting massive black holes,
circling each other at 250 times a second,
collided in a violent, universe-rippling explosion
that sent waves of energy
throughout the cosmos.
In its wake, a new supermassive black hole
formed over 60 times bigger than our Sun.
Fast forward to September 2015,
gravitational waves
from this ancient cosmic event
finally struck Earth.
Luckily, the gravitational waves weakened
over such a great distance.
But what if we weren't so lucky?
If a couple of black holes
in our Solar System collided,
could we survive?
This is WHAT IF,
and here's what would happen
In 1916, Albert Einstein made waves himself
with his groundbreaking theory of general relativity,
known famously by the formula E=MC*2,
He proved energy and mass are interchangeable,
and that space, or space-time,
curves in relation to the energy and momentum
of whatever matter and radiation are present.
With great foresight,
Einstein inferred the collision of black holes
or massive stellar objects
create distortions in gravity
which are pushed out in all directions.
Thanks to incredible developments
in atomic measurement,
scientists in Washington and Louisiana,
in the U.S.,
at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory,
were able to detect and measure
the first ever gravitational waves
here on Earth in 2015.
This was a historic moment in science,
as it was the first definitive proof
of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Using laser interferometry,
observatories can detect a change
less than ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton.
That's one million times smaller
than the width of a human hair.
Since then, LIGO has measured
50 detections of gravitational waves.
There are many sources of gravitational waves,
including the collision of black holes,
the rotation of asymmetrical neutron stars,
supernovae or even remnants
of gravitational radiation
caused by the Big Bang.
These waves travel at the speed of gravity,
equal to the speed of light,
and emanate outward in all directions.
Like a rock being thrown in a pond,
the ripples it creates
dissipate over great distances
and become smaller and smaller.
Luckily, in our pocket of the Universe,
we are over 400 million light years away
from any orbiting black holes.
We're generally safe,
but if these black holes happened
to be in our Solar System,
the implications are much more dire.
When gravitational waves
pass through a planet,
one side is compressed
as the other expands,
kind of like squeezing a stress ball.
I could use one of those right now.
As a result, time and space itself
are stretched causing a slight wobble.
But if we were closer
to this violent event
and the waves were much bigger,
this impact could potentially
tear our planet apart,
triggering powerful
continent-splitting earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions
and epic storms.
Earth wouldn't really be a habitable place anymore,
except for maybe extremophiles
like bacteria that thrive in hydrothermal vents.
Let's imagine our Sun was a neutron star
of an imperfect, non-spherical shape,
sending gravitational ripples
outward as it spins.
Earth would likely look more like Io,
one of Jupiter's moons,
which is put under great gravitational pressure by Jupiter
and, as a result,
is one of the most volcanically active
moons in the Solar System.
Our landscape would be covered in lava
and volcanic fallout
with an atmosphere made up of toxic gases
like hydrogen sulfide.
This would cause massive global warming
and intense storms,
constant tsunamis,
tornados,
and well, you get the idea.
Climate chaos.
We can count our blessings
we are nowhere near
any massive objects
shooting out gravitational waves,
but thankfully, we can still measure them
and learn more about
the complexities of our Universe.
Even though we get hit by gravitational waves,
they are generally so small
we can't even feel any impact.
But on the flipside,
what would it be like
if we suddenly lost our gravity?
That sounds like a story for another What If.