Before getting into the topic, let us re some things about a wave:
- A wave is a disturbance created in a medium.
- It can be like a ripples as in a water pond, or like other forms like Compressions and rarefactions like in a sound.
- A wave can also be produced as a product of a collisions, or a carrier of energy: as in heat waves.
keeping in mind the above things, we revert back to our topic. basically, waves are generated when a body is moving in a medium, it can be referred as an outcome of the things that happen between the surface of the body and the particles of the medium.
Hence, Gravitational waves are formed by the motion of the stellar bodies like stars, black holes and others. They can also be the outcome of the interaction between two stellar bodies!!!
These are similar to the ripples in a water body, and can be powerful and reproducing, depending on the massive bodies and the strength of collision.
Albert Einstein in 1916, theoretically proved the existence of Gravitational waves in his Theory of Relativity. He said that these transport energy in the form of gravitational radiation. However, there is no practical proof for its existence. Though there is no physical proof, there are still probes on this phenomenon. The latest research on the existence of Gravitational Waves was put forth by NASA, was the use of Atom Optics:
The latest technique, Atomic Interferometry is trying to re-write the canon. In conjunction with researchers at Stanford University, scientists at NASA Goddard are developing a system to measure the faint gravitational vibrations generated by movement of massive objects in the universe.
The succes of this research can result in the exploration of the space-time, the origin of universe and lots more.
Link: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11093
