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The Conversation
Chad Hanna, Professor of Physics, Penn State

The discovery of a gravitational wave 10 years ago shook astrophysics – these ripples in spacetime continue to reveal dark objects in the cosmos

When two massive objects – like black holes or neutron stars – merge, they warp space and time. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library

Scientists first detected ripples in space known as gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes in September 2015. This discovery marked the culmination of a 100-year quest to prove one of Einstein’s predictions.

Two years after this watershed moment in physics came a second late-summer breakthrough in August 2017: the first detection of gravitational waves accompanied by electromagnetic waves from the merger of two neutron stars.

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