Scholarly Article to Textbook Passage

Most of us are aware of how a light prism works. We learned sometime in elementary school that
when light hits a prism light waves (or electromagnetic waves) are broken up and reflected as the
different colors of the rainbow. This is because each color has a unique wavelength that translates
to visible light. Similarly, we know that sound waves exist. Sound waves travel through the air
creating modulations caused by the vibrations of objects. As the waves enter the eardrums of
human brains, they interpret vibrations as sound. Countless measurement tools have been
developed to detect these types of waves and a vast amount of knowledge has been accumulated
due to these advances. Now astrophysicists are on a quest to prove the existence of gravitational
waves, innovating tools to measure waves caused by objects that distort time and space.
In the past decade, scientists have gathered a great deal of experimental evidence to
support the theory of gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are a key component in the
Theory of Relativity first suggested by Albert Einstein in 1915. This theory explains that gravity
is the product of the curvature of space and time altered by objects of great mass. This curvature
is what causes planets to orbit one another moving at different speeds. The energy released by
these orbiting masses is what scientists call gravitational waves.
The existence of gravitational waves has come to be regarded as groundbreaking in the
world of physics for its support of the Theory of Relativity. It was in 1960s when scientists first
began to try to prove this theory and measure gravitational waves. In 2010 they finally achieved
success due to an accumulation of technical inventions and improvements. These technical
improvements allowed scientists to come out of their discourse communities to the larger public
in 2015 with substantial and convincing evidence to support the theory of relativity and
gravitational waves.

But what exactly are gravitational waves?

According to Zazuaki Kuroda an authority in the Institute of Cosmic Ray Research in the
University of Tokyo, The gravitational wave propagates in a speed of light with inducing spacetime distortion around. The detection of the gravitational waves is the direct test of the theory
and will be used as new tool to investigate dynamical nature of the universe.
Gravitational waves are waves produced whenever great masses in space accelerate
changing the distortion of time and space. Everything with mass and acceleration can create
gravitational waves. Like light waves, gravitational waves travel though space. They squeeze and
stretch as they pass through this space however, they are too tiny to be easily detected. You need
something really big moving really fast to make the ripples easily detectable. For this, two major
measurement tools have been developed, resonant antennas and laser interferometers. Like light
prisms and microphones made light and sound waves detectable and workable so have these two
tools.
Resonant antennas measure the release of gravitational wave energy expelled by
supernova explosions. The collapse of supernovas produces a burst of gravitational waves caused
by the accelerated expelled mass. Resonant antennas measure the stress due to these waves. The
actual magnitude of the waves caused by supernova explosions has been estimated and this could
be useful to enhance the signal in noise ratio for wave detection. However, supernova explosions
happen once every few decades therefore, concrete evidence and significant enhancement in the
field of resonant antennas is still in the works.
The other type of measurement tools are leaser interferometers. Laser interferometers
measure gravitational waves that occur when stars that orbit around each other come together
and merge to form a single star, also known as coalescence of compact binary stars. In this
process two starts orbiting around each other disturb space time around themselves giving off
energy as gravitational waves. This disruption of energy causes a chirping gravitational wave to
be emitted, creating a sound signal that can be detectable by laser interferometers. Just as a
chirping sound travels as a wave into our ears, gravitational waves enter the laser interferometers
casing vibrations as they bounce around and are interpreted. The only problem is, since
gravitational waves are so small it is nearly impossible to detect them under all the possible
technical, thermal and quantum noise.
Third generation tools developed by LIGO, Virgo, CEO-HF and KAGRA have figured
out a way to listen past the noise and find substantial evidence for the existence of gravitational
waves. Like understanding color and sound for the first time, this discovery has opened a whole
new way to explore the universe. People can now discover things that we didnt expect, look for
things that we didnt know existed, and expand our knowledge of physics and how the universe
works.