Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Merging black holes ripple spacetime to confirm Einstein prediction. The figure is taken from NSF, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

LIGO directly detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015

Merging black holes ripple spacetime to confirm Einstein prediction

In September 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detected ripples in spacetime caused by two merging black holes 1.3 billion light-years away. Predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915, gravitational waves stretch and squeeze detector laser arms by less than one ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton.

Where this comes from

NSF

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Science trivia Distance Calculator

More facts like this

The Kepler Space Telescope discovered thousands of exoplanetsMonitoring star brightness dips revealed worlds orbiting distant stars The Milky Way is pulled towards a vast gravitational featureA massive concentration of galaxy clusters draws home galaxy at high speed Rosetta was the first mission to orbit and land on a cometThe ESA probe rendezvoused with Comet 67P in 2014 to study its surface New Horizons performed the first close-up flyby of Pluto in 2015High-resolution photos revealed ice mountains and nitrogen glaciers Cassini ended its 13-year Saturn mission with a intentional plungeDiving into Saturn atmosphere prevented biological contamination of moons Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit both Uranus and NeptuneA planetary alignment enabled a close-range flyby tour of four gas giants

Tags: gravitational waves, ligo, einstein

LIGO directly detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Merging black holes ripple spacetime to confirm Einstein prediction. The figure is taken from NSF, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.