What Are Gravitational Waves?

Imagine space-time like a trampoline. If you jump on it, it stretches and squishes, that’s what happens when big things in the universe move or crash into each other. These movements send out waves, like ripples in water. We call them gravitational waves.

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Examples

A kid jumping on a trampoline sends ripples across it, just like gravitational waves when two black holes collide.
Imagine you're floating in space. A big object zooms past you, and you feel the space around you stretch, that's a gravitational wave passing through you.
When two cars crash at high speed, they send out sound waves, stars can send out gravitational waves when they crash too.

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Categories: Space · gravitational waves,space-time,cosmic events,LIGO,astronomy