Gravitational waves: Record number of 35 “wrinkles” of space-time detected |

An international team of scientists has announced that it has detected another 35 cases of gravitational waves from the universe, a record number to date. Thus, the gravitational wave detections that have been made since 2015 increased to a total of 90, when the first such detection became possible, which was announced in 2016, causing a global sensation at the time, while today such detections tend to become commonplace.

Gravitational waves are cosmic “wrinkles” of space-time caused by violent phenomena, such as supernova explosions (supernovae), black hole mergers, and neutron star collisions (pulsars).

The new gravitational wave crop, announced by the OzGrav Gravitational Wave Detection Center, includes 32 probes estimated to come from a fusion of black holes and three possibly from the collision of a neutron star and a black hole.

All detections were achieved through the internationally coordinated efforts of the gravitational wave detectors LIGO (USA), VIRGO (Italy) and KAGRA (Japan). The first two probes are currently out of order due to their upgrade and are expected to reopen after August 2022, giving new impetus to the new field of gravitational astronomy. As the detectors become more sensitive, it will be possible to detect gravitational waves from other sources, such as supernova explosions.

They were predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein on the basis of his theory of General Relativity, and carry energy in the form of gravitational radiation.

Two-dimensional representation of NASA gravitational waves. Two neutron stars orbit each other and cause the phenomenon.