European excellence in gravitational wave research

Young European researchers have helped track down the cosmic neighbourhood of two merging black holes as well as a pair of colliding neutron stars millions of light-years away. This marks the beginning of a new era in deciphering the fundamental physics phenomena hidden in the catastrophic events involving massive bodies.

Gravitational waves are one of the most remarkable predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity. These waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime caused by the acceleration of objects in the Universe and are hard to detect. To be detectable, gravitational waves need to be generated from extremely dense, massive objects moving at very high speeds.

Further details: European excellence in gravitational wave research