I’ve received a lot of emails asking about the recent discovery of gravity waves.
So, here’s a brief summary of the discovery:
1. What are gravity waves? Gravitational waves are a prediction of Einstein’s General Relativity. They are ripples traveling through the fabric of spacetime itself.
Although they were predicted 100 years ago, this is the first time they have been directly detected. (These waves are very weak, so detecting them is a difficult technological challenge.)
2. What was the source of these gravity waves? To produce the waves that were detected, the best model is the collision of two large black holes.
More precisely, there was a binary pair of two black holes, orbiting their common center of mass. They spiraled inwards, collided, and merged. In the process, they converted a substantial amount of mass—about three times the mass of our Sun—into gravitational waves, which were radiated away and ultimately were detected here on Earth.
3. What are the implications for origins? There are two. First of all, relativity’s predictions about the behavior of the fabric of spacetime have received further observational confirmation. Therefore, the creationary cosmologies that are based on these predictions are also supported. (More on these cosmologies in future articles.) Second, gravity waves are opening a whole new way of observing things in the cosmos that were otherwise hidden to us—a whole new way of appreciating our Creator’s fascinating Universe!
Image credit: NASA
