gravitational wave

noun

Astronomy, Physics.

1. (in general relativity) a propagating wave of gravitational energy produced by accelerating masses, especially during catastrophic events, as the gravitational collapse of massive stars.

gravitational wave

noun

1. physics another name for gravity wave

Word History and Origins

Origin of gravitational wave¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

To flourish, AIs may require access not only to social interaction and self-modification but also to the raw data streams of the universe — to the telescopes, satellites, supercolliders and cosmic ray, neutrino and gravitational wave detectors that together form humanity’s burgeoning planetary proprioception.

From Salon

The pulsar timing measurements must be extremely precise to measure the gravitational wave background correctly.

From Science Daily

Collaborations such as the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center use pulsars to study the gravitational wave background, which can help researchers understand the early Universe and the prevalence of gravitational-wave sources such as supermassive black-hole binaries.

From Science Daily

"They are interesting for other reasons too, as since the recent innovation of gravitational wave astronomy, there have been discoveries of binary black hole mergers, which can be explained if PBHs exist in large numbers. But despite these strong reasons for their expected abundance, we have not seen any directly, and now we have a model which should explain why this is the case."

From Science Daily

In this case, the team used a novel approach to correct the leading model of PBH formation from cosmic inflation so it better aligns with current observations and could be further verified with upcoming observations by terrestrial gravitational wave observatories around the world.

From Science Daily