Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, a year after the development of his new theory of gravitation known as the general theory of relativity. This theory established gravitation as the curvature of space-time produced by matter and energy. To be discernible even to the most sensitive instruments on Earth, the waves have to be produced by immensely massive objects like black holes and neutron stars which are rotating around each other, or in the extreme situat...