“GRADAR” to solve the mysteries of Invisible Universe?

Summary

[Researchers have found that the invisible universe could be mapped using gravitational wave “radar”. Gravitational waves were originally discovered in 2015. They are moving ripples in the very fabric of space and time. Could be used to hunt for big objects in space, otherwise impossible to find, like clumps of dark matter or lone neutron stars on the other side of the observable universe.]

• According to researchers in an article accepted to Physical Review Letters, a potential future device “GRADAR” (gravitational wave radar) could use gravitational wave reflections to map the invisible universe.

• With these signals, scientists may be able to find dark matter or dim, exotic stars and learn about their deep insides.

• Gravity waves, which were originally discovered in 2015, are moving ripples in the very fabric of space and time. Astronomers use gravitational waves to observe dramatic events like the merger of two black holes, really difficult to observe with just light. However, physicists are also aware of gravitational waves’ seemingly pointless ability to shift direction.

• They determined the strength of the signal that would result from waves scattering within a star itself using Einstein’s theory as a guide.

• This could allow scientists to hunt for big objects in space, otherwise impossible to find, like clumps of dark matter or lone neutron stars on the other side of the observable universe.

• Additionally, scientists could use this discovery to trace the interior of stars and create a more detailed map of the universe.

Scientists have always assumed that the later gravitational wave signals, often known as “gravitational glints,” should be too faint to be noticed. But Cleveland, Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University physicists Craig Copi and Glenn Starkman made a leap, courtesy Einstein and his theory of gravity. Source

What is the Universe made up of?

Simply put, the Universe is made up of less than 5 percent of the known Universe. And more than 95 percent is the Unknown, or invisible Universe. The main parts of the Universe are:

Dark energy – makes up 68 per cent of the Universe, and we can’t see it. It could be a kind of repulsive gravity that drives galaxies apart, or something unknown.

Dark matter – makes up 27 per cent of the Universe, but we can’t see it. Scientists believe that dark matter is made up of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that pass through normal matter without a trace.

Baryonic matter – this is normal, visible stuff. It’s mostly in stars and galaxies but also here on Earth as everything from trees to people. Baryonic matter only makes up 5 per cent of the Universe.

Now, the Universe is mostly made up of dark energy and dark matter. What is it, where did it come from, and how did it all get here?

The main idea is that there is a mysterious form of energy, called dark energy. It makes up 68% of the Universe. It applies pressure to space itself so that galaxies are slowly moving apart, and not pulling each other closer. This means that the Universe has been expanding since its very creation.

To try and explain this, some scientists believe there is a form of matter that they call dark matter. But they can’t see it or know what it really is – even though it’s made up of normal matter .

The other piece in the puzzle for understanding the Universe is quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics explains about a “hundred percent” of what happens on the Earth, the Universe, and even bigger scale.

The Implications of this Finding

If these scientists find dark matter, they will have a better understanding of how the Universe began. It’s since we don’t know what dark matter is.

It was just hypothesized in the 1930s by two physicists named Fritz Zwicky and Jan Oort that there were large things moving around in space, But they couldn’t see them – they were dark. They thought that the stars were passing through stuff that wasn’t yet understood by scientists.

However, if confirmed by experiments and observations, these gravitational wave findings will be a difference-making help to astrophysicists.

Before it could be used, scientists will need to better comprehend it, which will undoubtedly be challenging.

“It’s a very hard calculation,” Copi says.

But at the end of the day, we have overcame similar challenges a lot of times before. Take the whole story of gravitational wave detection, or even the Large Hadron Collider. There was a time when it was also considered as something that would never happen.

If this research is confirmed and verified, it will be an important step on the journey to a more complete understanding of the Universe. Hopefully, with future work and experiments, we can improve our knowledge of the invisible Universe.