Publication Date

Fall 2017

Faculty Supervisor

Erik Johnson

Description

Perhaps the most the notorious player in the astronomical field, objects known as black holes captivate the imaginations of scientists and average folk the world over, but as much as we adore hypothesizing about what black holes are like, there is so much that we’re only just finding out about. From 1909 until 1918, famed physicist Albert Einstein predicted many characteristics of spacetime and the effect of massive objects on it, including the notion of an energy-carrying wave moving at the speed of light that causes ripples through the fabric of spacetime, otherwise known as gravitational waves. A relatively recent field of astrophysical study is the study of gravitational waves, a phenomenon first conceived of by the most famous physicist in history, Albert Einstein. In this paper, I intend to discuss binary black hole mergers that produce such gravitational waves, the mergers that have been discovered already by gravitational wave observatories, and the future of gravitational wave observation.

Course

Astronomy 102

Rights

Copyright is owned by the creator of this work.

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