Decoding the Universe: Quantum | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS - YouTube - physics/astrophysics

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of gravitational waves,but he didn't live to see their confirmation,which first occurred in 2017.Gravitational waves are emmited by the most powerful events in the universe,such as the merger of black holes or neutron stars.

About the Einstein Probe and Einstein's prediction of Gravitational waves

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of Gravitational waves caused by massive events in the universe.These were not detected in Einstein's lifetime,however.The first indirect evidence of Gravitational waves was deduced in 1974 from the motion of a double neutron star system,leading to their maerger.The first direct observations of Gravitational waves took place on 14 September 2015 by the LIGO and Virgo collaboration.The signal was evidence of the inward spiral and merger of two black holes.A third possibility of detecting Gravitational waves would be the assyemetrical explosion of a supernova.So far,no such event has been detected,as supernovas are generally spherically symmetrical;only the mergers of black holes and neutron stars have been captured.

Einstein Probe launch

Gravitational waves create a 'cosmic symphony' that scientists are tuning into - National Science Foundation

Based on his Theory of General Relativity,in 1915 Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves,which are ripples in spacetime caused by massive cosmic events.Their existence wasn't verified until 2016 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).Additionally,a network of two radio telescopes at Arecibo,Puerto Rico and Green Bank,West Virginia monitoring pulsars,which are highly magnetized,rapidly rotating neutron stars,were successfully enlisted in the search for gravitational waves.It is the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) sponsored by the National Science Foundation,and reported the first results of the project in 2023,the detection of background gravitational waves based on more than 15 years of radio telescope data.