tech

Thunder and lightning: scientists pair gravitational waves, light

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By Scott Malone

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So it appears we are constantly being stretched and pulled this way and that by these gravity waves, while all the while neutrinos are streaming right through us as if we didn't matter a bit to them. The Universe doesn't seem to care about us.

In astrophysics, as in all of human life. Such promising news. A thank-you to all these brilliant scientists.

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I had heard something about gravity waves being a promising area for speculative communication technology for future deep space probe designs. I couldn't remember whether the reason for this was their speed (which apparently is only just above the electromagnetic spectrum) or some other aspect. Indeed, it is the lack of interference by astronomical bodies that makes them appear promising at this time.

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It's interesting that the gravity waves arrived before the light burst. Does that mean they travel faster than light, or is it something to do with distortion of space that makes the light travel further, or do the gravity waves and light bursts have different origins?

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@Scrote, that same question is discussed at the link below. I don't see a clear answer there (but I'm not sure I'd recognize one anyway).

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/363179/why-did-the-gamma-ray-burst-from-gw170817-lag-two-seconds-behind-the-gravitation

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Previously, scientists could only study space by observing electromagnetic waves such as radio waves, visible light, infrared light, X-rays and gamma rays. Those waves encounter interference as they travel across the universe, but gravitational waves do not, offering a wealth of additional information.

If light encounters interference along the way, then the gravitational waves would arrive first

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