The Universe's Secret Text Messages: Gravitational Waves
Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in spacetime caused by massive cosmic events like black hole collisions. Predicted by Einstein, they were detected in 2015, confirming his theory of general relativity.
Gravitational waves are produced in space, moving at the speed of light, which is 300,000 kilometers per second; they are invisible and extremely fast, explained Miguel Alcubierre Moya, researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences (ICN) of the UNAM.
In addition, they occur very far from us, so they weaken and are difficult to detect from Earth. They spread in a similar way to the waves generated in a body of water when a stone is thrown, and they are capable of contracting and stretching anything they find in their path. “If they passed through us, we would become tall and thin, and then fat and short, again and again,” he said.
