From what it means, to what it could've come from, and the entire mystery of it all!
Join me as we explore how a mysterious burst of gravitational waves hit earth!
I know what you're thinking, "gravitational waves hit Earth...so what?" and on the surface
(pun somewhat intended) I can see your indifference.
Clearly these gravitational waves didn't affect the Earth in a way that we should worry, and
as you'll soon find out the waves themselves were only detected in a split second of time,
so why should we care about these at all?
The answer to that is very simple...we have no idea where it came from...at all.
The gravitational wave signal, picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer, lasted only 14 milliseconds, and astronomers
haven't yet been able to pinpoint the burst's cause or determine whether it was just a blip
in the detectors.
More than likely, it wasn't a blip, because if that was the case then there would be more
of them having as space and time go on...but it hasn't.
So, if it wasn't a random thing, then that would mean that it's something more, something
greater, and of course, something cosmic.
But what could cause gravitational waves to hit the Earth, even if it's just a short period
of time, and have us not know what it is?
Obviously that rules out something going on in our own solar system, so for the "truth"
we must look beyond, look to the galaxies and systems beyond our own and see what it
might have been.
With that in mind, what out there in the cosmos might be able to cause such waves to reach
Earth?
The biggest likely theory is that two massive objects collided with each other out in space.
How often does that happen?
More than you might think.
Never forget, it's a big universe out there, and there are a lot of things running into
each other all the time.
But, in order to create waves like these, it would have to be something massive, like
a Neutron Star or a Black Hole colliding with a counterpart of theirs.
Again, this is something that does happen a lot in space.
Neutron Stars colliding is actually more common than you realize, but that's another list.
But if that's the answer...why is the gravity waves still a mystery?
That would be because the gravitational waves from collisions of such massive objects typically
last longer and manifest in the data as a series of waves that change in frequency over
time as the two orbiting objects move closer to each other, said Andy Howell, a staff scientist
at Los Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and an adjunct faculty member in physics
at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
But this didn't read like that at all, so more than likely, this isn't two Neutron Stars
or Black Holes colliding.
Which has been further backed up by the type of signal that has been detected before by
those kinds of events, and this was a "burst" of gravity waves, not a wave of signals like
others that have been detected before.
Alright, so what's another theory that could tell us what these mysterious waves could
be?
The second theory is that these gravity waves could be the remnants of a massive star collapsing
and going Supernova.
Not unlike Neutron Stars or Black Holes colliding, this happens more than you might think, and
going Supernova is a big part of the life of a star.
We do know that there are stars in the sky right now that are potentially on the verge
of going Supernova (within tens of thousands of years roughly), so scientists looked to
see if any of them were not where they were supposed to be, as well as looking for bright
new lights in the sky.
One of the biggest candidates for a Supernova explosion is the star known as Betelgeuse.
This star is in the later stages of its life, and is already showing the signs of getting
"close" to Supernova stage.
When the gravitational burst was found, some thought that Betelgeuse had exploded earlier
than expected...but it hadn't.
The star is still exactly where it was supposed to be, and none of the other candidates appear
to have gone Supernova either.
What's more, the burst still "seems a little too short for what we expect from the collapse
of a massive star," he said.
"On the other hand, we've never seen a star blowing up in gravitational waves before,
so we don't really know what it would look like."
Here's another checkmark in the "why it may not be a Supernova" box.
When a Supernova goes off, one of the things that it sends out into the universe itself
is Neutrinos.
Tiny subatomic particles that carry no charge.
They LOVE to send those out, and after scientists found out about them, they made detectors
(all over the Earth) so that they could go and detect the Neutrinos when they came our
way.
So much so that WHEN a Supernova does go off, we'll get readings of the Neutrinos about
an hour or two before the Supernova goes off, allowing scientists and potentially people
all over the Earth, to look up at the sky to see the results of the Supernova going
off.
But since there weren't any Neutrinos detected in this burst of gravity, then it's not likely
a Supernova going off.
Another possibility is that the merging of two intermediate-mass black holes caused the
signal, Howell said.
Merging neutron stars produce waves that last longer (around 30 seconds) than this new signal,
while merging black holes might more closely resemble bursts (that last around a couple
of seconds).
However, intermediate black hole mergers might also release a series of waves that change
in frequency.
And this one didn't change in frequency, not even a little bit.
LIGO came across this signal while specifically looking for such bursts.
But "that doesn't mean that what it found is an intermediate-mass black hole merger,"
Howell told Live Science.
"We don't know what they found," especially since LIGO hasn't yet released the exact structure
of the signal, he added.
Before we continue to suss out theories about what the mysterious signal could be, be sure
to like the video and subscribe to the channel!
That way you don't miss any of our weekly videos!
Given the rather mysterious nature of the bursts, many are wondering if it's possible
that the detectors just thought they found something when they didn't.
Computer error is a very likely possibility, but as researchers dug into this, it became
more and more unlikely.
Not because of the signal itself, but because of where the signal was detected.
You see, LIGO didn't just pick it up with one of their machines, they found it on three.
Three that were in very different places.
One was in Washington State.
The second was in Louisiana, and the final one was in Italy!
Which means that this burst of gravity, no matter how small or quick, was picked up by
the detectors that were basically across the globe.
For all three to detect them at the same period of time means that it really is a solid signal.
But of course, that also means that we don't know what exactly know what made the signal.
More theories have been proposed, including the merging of black holes (not the same as
colliding just to be clear), or a supernova collapsing WITHIN a black hole, but it's not
definitive.
None of it is.
Which brings us to arguably one of the biggest questions there is, "What if the event was
caused by something we honestly have never detected before?"
"The universe always surprises us," Howell added.
"There could be totally new astronomical events out there that produce gravitational waves
that we haven't really thought about."
I know that this may seem like a copout, because if we don't know what is causing it, it MUST
mean that it's something we've never found before, studied before, etc.
But it's a little more profound than that.
You see, despite all of our studies, despite all of our research, despite everything we've
done to try and get the universe mapped...the fact of the matter is that we just don't know
everything about the universe at large.
Not even by a longshot.
We're still finding out things about our own solar system that shocks and amazes us.
We're still learning things about the Earth and the Sun that we were SURE we knew about
a few decades ago...and yet we don't.
So for these gravitational waves to suddenly appear and vanish without us knowing what
they are?
It's just further proof that we don't know as much about the universe that we think we
do.
For all we know, there could be something just outside our solar system that caused
the event itself.
What could it have been?
Your guess is as good as mine, but the option is there.
Of course, that also means that there could've been something out in the deepest reaches
of space that caused these gravitational anomaly.
Or, there could've been a sequence of events that we never thought probable or likely to
happen in our lifetime that caused the gravity waves, we just don't know.
And to be honest, that's ok, we don't need to know everything in the universe, because
the moment that happens, the awe and wonder tends to go away.
After all, if we "boldly go where no man has gone before" and then we find all the places
we've never been too before...what's left to explore?
Now, that doesn't mean that we don't try and figure out what's going on here, that's not
what we're saying, we're just saying that it's cool that there are a lot of options
as to what these gravitational waves could be.
And of course, one of the biggest questions that could happen to come up during these
studies and research as to the source is...what if it happens again?
After all, this discovery was VERY recent, it happened in January 2020, and so by that
token, it could mean that there are potentially more bursts like this coming in one form or
another.
And it's also possible that one of these bursts may be a bit more powerful than the one we've
detected.
What do we mean by that?
Well, as noted, the gravity wave burst that we detected was only milliseconds in length
in regards to time it hit Earth.
Which means that technically the Earth was "squeezed" for that length of time.
Now imagine what would happen if a more POWERFUL burst of gravity waves hit us.
Ones that would say last...oh...a minute or so?
If that was to happen, it could honestly have an impact on our planet.
How would that work?
Well, think about it in the grand scale of our solar system.
Our world is held on a tether, that tether is tied to the sun, which exudes its massive
gravity to pull all the planets, moons and other debris and celestial objects in a certain
kind of pattern we call orbits.
It's true that the moons circle the planets because of planetary gravity, but the sun
still helps in its own way.
Moving on.
That tether is finally tuned and balanced.
If something is messed up within that balance, a whole lot of other things will suffer.
Not unlike if one of the planets randomly disappeared from the solar system.
Depending on the planet, it honestly would cause certain problems for the system as a
whole.
Getting back to the gravity situation, if the gravity wave was strong enough, it would
have the potential to disrupt our suns pull on our planet.
Even if it lasts a minute, that's a lot of potential gravity deflection, even if we don't
realize it.
Think of the solar system as a series of balls in a groove around a circular board.
Each groove that each planet is in is their orbit, with a giant ball in the center signaling
the sun.
If the gravity wave hit the Earth and was able to either pull it out of its groove,
or halt it in its groove, that would affect the entire way the "board" works, especially
if we're moved out of that groove and thus thrown into another orbit, or even a slightly
altered orbit.
After all, our orbit around the sun helps determine not just the seasons on Earth, but
also how much heat, light, and radiation we get.
So if we were suddenly thrown for a loop?
Yeah, that would have a devastating impact on our planet.
Granted, this is a BIG assumption, but it's not one that can be discounted since we don't
know where the waves came from.
Should an event like this happen again and the waves are stronger, and stay longer, we
could be in trouble.
Or, in contrast, if the waves continue to come and continue to be detected, we could
find ourselves with more clues as to where it all came from.
At present, this mysterious gravity wave may not seem like a big deal, but considering
we don't know much about the wave itself, where it came from, or where in space it originated
from, this mystery is exactly what scientists love to find.
Because it gives them reasons to look at sections of space they might not have looked at before
to see what might be causing this.
Should the answer be found?
It could help bring even more illumination on how the universe works, and that's something
that just about every scientist would be up for.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of the mystery of these gravitational waves?
Do you think that they were just a "blip on the screen", or were they something more?
Do you think we'll ever find out what they truly are?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!