Shak
March 21, 2014, 9:18pm
12
Re: GRAVITY WAVES DETECTED - afterglow of the BIG BANG
Let’s assume that you are in a small raft in a big lake. I have a power boat and I pass by you at a high speed. If I am at a distance from you, you will see my boat passing by, but it will not affect you till sometime later. That is when the waves generated in the water by the motion of my boat reaches you. Your small raft will start shaking, all thanks to the ripples created by my boat in the water.
Take the same analogy, where spacetime is calm body of water. Any mass that is moving through the spacetime is creating ripples, which is known as gravitational waves. Those waves will reach you based on how far you are from the mass at any given time. The waves that were created some 14 billion years ago are reaching you now, because that is how far you are from the source in spacetime.*
Good explanation for a normal everyday Joe like me. I have been reading up more stuff and watching more documentaries about our Universe and deep space probes.
Fascinating stuff and keeps me busy for hours sometimes.