Although it may be very odd for regular people, the fabric of spacetime itself is able to literally shake due to a cataclysmic cosmic event like a neutron star collision. Space and time are far from being made of ‘nothing’ like people usually perceive them, and a recent proof from the scientific collaboration known as LIGO/Virgo comes to support that idea.
39 gravitational wave events were discovered by LIGO/VIRGO scientists during the first six months of their third observing run. 26 of these events were previously announced, and 13 of them are new.
Behold how the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detects gravitational waves:
Part of the video’s description says the following:
More About LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool.[2] Two large observatories were built in the United States with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry.
Thanks to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, humanity has learned that time shouldn’t be considered something separated from space as long as we’re talking pure science. Time is strongly related to space, and that’s why Einstein even called them both with one word: ‘spacetime’. The famous American astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson explained the idea in a very friendly and easy way. He said that you can’t tell a friend where to meet you without also informing him about the time, neither to say to him only the time without providing info about the desired meeting place itself.
Outer space itself, taken separately, is not empty at all. Spacetime acts like a flexible sheet of paper that gets bent when a massive object is near. Therefore, neither space and time won’t be the same for cosmic objects throughout the Universe.
