Source: Freepik
What is Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity about? It is basically about the interdependence of space and time and that masses that are in space have ripples which have different levels of magnitudes and accelerations and it could potentially break space-time.
This interaction could be measured through gravity waves. Where large gravitational waves occur through large-scale interactions as the objects would have more mass and other small gravitational waves are often formed through imperfections in a neutron star. The imperfections are often bumps that ruin the perfect sphere of a neutron star which can distort the perfect spin and rotation of it.
Gravitational waves were often a mystery as famous scientists like Einstein claimed that it exists and other scientists believed that it was spurious. However, as decades progressed in 1974 it was found through pulsars, which is a cosmic entity which rapidly emits radio waves, that it emits radio emissions which inferred the possibility of gravitational waves, but it was only proven directly in 2015. In the 2015 discovery, it was produced by one of the largest gravitational waves ever as it was the collision between two black holes.
Overall, gravitational waves are important for scientists to be able to uncover countless mysteries about the universe. Furthermore, more and more discoveries could be made with the help of gravitational waves such as the specific origin of a nebula or a black hole. Some of these could be uncovered in the distant future as long as scientists devote time to studying gravitational waves in future years in space exploration.
References
What are gravitational waves?. Caltech. (n.d.). https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw