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Gravitational waves fixed

10.09.2012

With the help of data obtained as a result of the study of a pair of white dwarfs located very close to each other, scientists were able to verify the existence of gravitational waves. The latest issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters reports that for the first time astronomers have managed to capture gravitational waves, or rather, their consequences. Be that as it may, the existence of these waves, predicted by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, seems to have been proven, and this fact in itself can serve as a serious basis for the Nobel Prize.

The existence of gravitational waves was discovered by an inter-university team of US scientists by observing a system of two white dwarfs called SDSS J065133.338+284423.37 (or J0651 for short). This system, located 13 light-years from Earth, was discovered last year. Its distinguishing feature is the unusual proximity of the planets to each other - the distance between them is three times less than from the Earth to the Moon, and their period of rotation around each other is less than XNUMX minutes.

According to Einstein's theory, objects moving along a curve should bend space-time, causing gravitational ripples on its surface, in other words, long-sought gravitational waves. True, for these waves to become noticeable, gravitational perturbations must be incredibly large. Such, for example, as in the case of the movement of almost merged white dwarfs. The theory of general relativity requires that these perturbations increase the energy of both stars, speeding up their movement and reducing the distance between them. Such an acceleration should occur without the intervention of relativistic effects and affect the frequency of oppositions of the system, in other words, "dwarf eclipses". According to scientists, since April 2011, the period of such eclipses in the J0651 system has decreased by 6 seconds.

One of the team members, Warren Brown of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, who is leading the study, says the relativistic effect was so strong "that it could be measured with an ordinary wristwatch." According to calculations, by May 2013 this period will be reduced by another 20 seconds, thereby accelerating the moment of complete merger of stars. The merger itself will occur a little later - in about two million years.

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