Can we detect gravitational waves from the Big Bang?

The type of waves that might be produced in the early universe are called cosmological gravitational waves and have not yet been detected. Such waves travel freely after being produced; they act like ghosts that can go through the recombination wall and provide a unique tool to investigate the early universe.

How does the cosmic background radiation support the Big Bang theory?

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is thought to be leftover radiation from the Big Bang, or the time when the universe began. As the theory goes, when the universe was born it underwent a rapid inflation and expansion. The CMB represents the heat left over from the Big Bang.

What prediction was made about the light waves that remain from the Big Bang?

Physicists have found a long-predicted twist in light from the big bang that represents the first image of ripples in the universe called gravitational waves, researchers announced today.

How far can LIGO detect gravitational waves?

But LIGO’s advanced detectors can hear thousands of times father away than this, primed to detect gravitational waves originating in galaxies as far as hundreds of millions of light years away (the August 2017 event originated in a galaxy 130 million light years away).

What do gravitational wave detectors like LIGO actually measure?

So how does LIGO work? The LIGO facility consists of two identical L-shaped detectors in Washington state and Louisiana, each of which employs lasers and mirrors to measure the tiny changes in spacetime made by passing gravitational radiation.

What frequency can LIGO detect?

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of two widely separated 4 km laser interferometers designed to detect gravitational waves from distant astrophysical sources in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz.

What did Einstein call gravity?

Einstein argued that gravity isn’t a force at all. He described it as a curvature of time and space caused by mass and energy.