According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravity is the curvature of spacetime caused by the presence of mass. The greater the mass of an object, the greater the curvature of spacetime, at the boundary of the object's volume. As objects with mass move through spacetime, the curvature changes to reflect the changed positions of those objects. Under certain circumstances, accelerating objects generate changes in this curvature, which propagate outward in a wave-like manner at the speed of light. These propagation phenomena are known as gravitational waves. In other words, gravitational waves are ripples that distort spacetime, increasing and decreasing distances between objects at a frequency corresponding to that of the wave. (Stretching and squeezing everything in their path). Just like a stone dropped into a pond, the waves generated weaken as they move further from the source. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Powerful gravitational waves are created when gigantic objects move at high speed; two highly dense objects orbit each other in binary pairs. These pairs can be, for example, two black holes, two neutron stars or a black hole and a neutron star. Detectable gravitational waves can also be generated by a supernova (explosion of a massive star). However, because these events happened so far away, gravitational waves distort spacetime by an absolutely small amount (many times less than the width of a proton) by the time they reach Earth. Measuring such tiny changes is quite impossible for most measuring devices, hence the difficulty in detecting them. This was until recently. Although the announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves was made in 2016, the actual detection was made in September 2015 by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory). A pair of black holes (29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun) merged, producing distortions in space-time that LIGO in turn detected. Since then we have had four more detections, the fourth was significant because it was also detected by the Virgo gravitational wave detector in Italy. Similarly to the first, the other three gravitational waves detected were also caused by pairs of colliding black holes while the fifth observation was due to the merger of neutron stars. The LIGO facility consists of two L-shaped detectors in Washington State and Louisiana, each of which are equipped with mirrors and lasers to measure small changes in spacetime caused by passing gravitational waves. Both LIGO observatories have two arms more than 4 km long and perpendicular to each other. Two mirrors are installed at each end of the arms and the change in the distance between them is recorded. A laser bouncing back and forth between the mirrors keeps track of their distance. Since the detectors are sensitive to external disturbances such as passing trucks, earthquakes, ocean waves, etc., it is critical that a signal is present in both detectors for it to be real. In addition to LIGO there is a third observatory (the Virgo detector of the European Gravitational Observatory) designed in a similar way. India and Japan are also expected to operate their own similar observatories soon. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Gravitational waves can access areas of space where waves are present.