Motivations for Detecting Gravitational Waves

Why Bother Looking for Gravitational Waves?

LIGO and GEO are complex experiments that need a lot of money and time to run, as demonstrated by the need for Einstein@Home. However, if gravitational waves are detected, they will show the universe in a completely new light.

Most of the things we know about the universe we learned from studying it with light. Light is the only source of information we have, for instance, from distant objects in space such as galaxies. Gravitational waves would be an additional source of information from distant objects. They would give us information on objects that don’t emit light, like black holes, and on how massive objects are moving and colliding.

One way to visualize the importance of detecting gravitational waves is to think of the universe as a movie and gravity waves as sound. By studying the movie with light, we can see what happens. By studying the movie with sound, we can hear what happens. Although each of these methods gives us some information on the storyline, we can only really understand what is happening when we can see and hear the movie at the same time. This is why scientists are so excited about being able to study the universe with gravitational waves and light waves.

Scientists have some idea what they might hear while listening to gravitational waves, but they are also excited about the possibility of hearing things they never thought to listen for. Join Einstein@Home today and be a part of this important investigation!