Gravitational radiation

Article By:

Fritschel, Peter K. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Last reviewed:August 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757296

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• Gravitational radiation, published November 2019:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Gravitational radiation, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

A wave in spacetime generated by the acceleration of mass and that travels at the speed of light. Gravitational waves, which transport energy as gravitational radiation (Fig. 1), are an implicit outcome of the special theory of relativity formulated by German-born U.S. theoretical physicist Albert Einstein in 1905, and which were subsequently put forward explicitly in his theory of general relativity in 1915. Einstein showed that the acceleration of masses generates time-dependent gravitational fields that can carry energy away from their source at the speed of light. Gravitational waves are likened to "ripples" moving through spacetime—the term used for the intertwining of the three dimensions of physical space with a fourth dimension, time, and thus comprising the four-dimensional geometry of the universe described by relativity. See also: Acceleration; Energy; Gravity; Light; Mass; Observation of gravitational waves; Relativity; Spacetime

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