When it comes to Newton's theory of universal gravitation, it is estimated that it is not unfamiliar to individuals, but it is certainly not familiar to those who have not specifically understood the gravitational theory mentioned in Einstein's general theory of relativity, which is more precise and more detailed than its own. The latter, based on the "field", interprets the theory of the existence of gravitation in a deeper sense, and Einstein even predicted a new term called gravitational waves in general relativity, which is outrageously confirmed in an accidental space probe after spanning a full century. What exactly is this magical prophecy? What happened to that sensational test of both astronomy and physics? After watching this video, you will know.
General relativity is a theoretical theory that Einstein completed in 1915 and officially published in 1916, in short, it first explained the concept of gravitational field as a distortion of space-time, the concept of which mainly involves the universe black hole, gravitational translucence, space-time relationship, etc., in which gravitational waves are still only as a prophecy, this theory seems to be somewhat unreasonable at the time, after all, although gravity is everywhere in our daily lives. But to associate it with the so-called distortion of space-time is like a fantasy, even if many of the contents of general relativity have been actually confirmed later, so that it can become the basis of modern physics along with special relativity and quantum mechanics, but the prediction of gravitational waves has not been verified for a long time, and finally forgotten by many people.
In Einstein's prediction, gravity is an interaction between the gravitational field and the material field, the propagation of the field takes time, the speed of propagation is also limited, and the main body of this propagation is the ripple of space-time distortion, radiating outward in the form of waves and transmitting energy, which is the so-called gravitational wave. An important reason why this prediction is difficult to convince at the theoretical level is that it contradicts Newton's classical theory of gravity, because in Newton's theory the interaction of matter assumes that the speed of propagation is infinite.
On February 11, 2016, the LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the United States announced to everyone a news that shocked everyone: THE LIGO detector and the Virgo detector accidentally detected a special waveform not long ago, and after a period of tracking research, this waveform was confirmed to be a gravitational wave produced by the merger of two black holes, and the entire merger gravitational wave event was also named GW190521.
In the description of LIGO scientists, it can be known that the two black holes they saw were completely different, one was a very ordinary black hole, and the other was similar to a black hole that expanded and expanded, and after calculations, it was found to be 1.5 times larger than the previously observed black hole, and the mass was a full 85 times higher than the sun. This large black hole must not have been formed by the collapse of the star we are familiar with, and the only possibility is that it is the product of the merger of two black holes earlier, and because of its excessive mass, it has entered the unexpected range of conventional astrophysical processes.
Sure enough, only the universe is the biggest stage for the birth and discovery of gravitational waves, which has since confirmed the gravitational wave theory predicted by Einstein a hundred years ago, which makes everyone who loves astronomy and physics excited, but the people who do not know the truth are prone to a question, how is the energy of gravitational waves generated? Where did it come from? This has to be applied to Einstein's other famous universal equation, mass-energy equivalence E= mc², E is energy, m is mass, c is the speed of light in a vacuum, the meaning of this equation is actually when the constant value of c is established, energy and mass energy present an equivalence relationship, gravitational waves can refer to this truth, its energy comes from the mass of two black holes subtract the mass of the merged black hole, in solar mass as a unit, The two black holes in the GW190521 event are 36 and 29 solar masses, respectively, and the total mass is 65 solar masses, while the merged black holes have only 62 solar masses, so the remaining 3 solar masses are gravitational wave energy.
Since LIGO first detected the gravitational wave signal of the merger of two black holes, the world's major observatories and research centers once again announced on October 16, 2017 that humans have detected gravitational waves from the merger of twin stars for the first time, and also displayed their electromagnetic signals. Compared with the last detection of gravitational wave signals, this time we are directly observing the gravitational wave body, the significance is extraordinary, it not only for Einstein's miraculous prediction once again gave a strong support, but also proved that the pace of human exploration of the unknown field is constantly moving forward, even in the face of the boundless universe, human beings are incomparably small and fragile existence, but the desire for knowledge supports us to move forward, becoming an earthling who can both sigh under the vast starry sky, and can break through the sky and find the mystery of the universe and life.