Gravitational waves are invisible and extremely fast ripples in space. They travel at speeds of 186000 miles per second or 299337984 meters per second! These waves essentially squash anything that comes their way.

Gravitational waves had been discovered very long ago. Albert Einstein discovered these very long ago when he created the ideations of gravity and relativity. Einstein believed that when two stars orbited each other, (A binary star system) they would release ripples in space, which are now called gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are created when major changes in the gravitational fields of large objects take place, much like a supernova, or black holes merging. The sudden change results in a spread of the change across space. Objects in the vicinity get affected by this change, so essentially gravitational waves are the differences in gravitational fields released by large celestial bodies.

Most of the gravitational waves released by objects are hard to detect, because they are caused by faraway bodies, and the waves die out by the time they reach the earth. Back in 2015, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) was used to discover gravitational waves for the first time. These waves were caused by a merger of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago, however, the waves arrived in 2015.

The discovery of gravitational waves was of paramount importance, as until then we studied celestial objects by light, but now we can use these waves as well! LIGO uses two 2km long arms, and when a passing gravitational wave gets intercepted, the arms are slightly shifted. Of course, the true setup is much more complicated, however, this is the crux of the idea.

Continuous gravitational waves are waves that, as the name suggests recurring release waves. These are typically released by spinning neutron stars. Bumps and imperfections in the surface of the star result in irregular gravitational fields, and since the star is so dense, the waves get released. LIGO converts the distortions it detects into sounds called “Chirps”. These chirps make it much easier to identify these releases. The video below is of a chirp detected by LIGO.