Gravitational Wave
Two black holes orbit around each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation. As the black holes get closer, the waves increase in frequency. Eventually, the event horizons merge into a peanut-shaped object, generating one very high-frequency wave. Within a rotation, the black holes merge completely. One lower-frequency wave, called the ring down, ripples out after the merger.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
A short, loopable segment of the above.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
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Animator
- Krystofer Kim (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Science writer
- Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland College Park)
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Scientists
- James Ira Thorpe (NASA/GSFC)
- Bernard J. Kelly (UMBC)
Release date
This page was originally published on Thursday, April 28, 2022.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 11:44 AM EDT.