3 ms·
Would pushing large enough asteroids into one another generate gravitational waves?
by hos234 7y ago
Would pushing large enough asteroids into one another generate gravitational waves?
- gus_massa 7y agoYes, but they will be very very very … very very very tiny, and we will not be able to detect them with LIGO+Virgo. I'm not sure if the formula to estimate the energy we receive from the waves is (Mass1+Mass2) * SomeConstant / distance^2 or it is Mass1 * Mass2 * SomeConstant / distance^2. I'm assuming that it is the first formula. If the second one is the correct one, you must add more "very" in my first paragraph.
- frickinLasers 7y agoEverything generates gravitational waves. They're just far too small to detect unless the masses involved are enormous.
- forgotpwd16 7y agoAny form of acceleration generates gravitational waves. The point is how strong they are. Two black holes sized ~200km (or ~30 solar masses) merging at distance ~10000km would be detected through an interferometer by a shift in one part in 1000, that is a change of ~2mm. Those are objects many order of magnitudes more massive than asteroids. So you will get gravitational waves but you wouldn't be able to detect them similar to not being able to detect the waves responsible for the orbit decay of planets.
- jcims 7y agoThis is true but we’re detecting that type of interaction a billion lightyears away. I bet if you did the stubby pencil work you would find that the sensitivity is there. I just don’t think the search algorithms would find the signature.
- me_me_me 7y agoYes, everything creates gravitational waves. Though at this scale we don't have equipment large enough to detect it.
- phyzome 7y agoTechnically yes. Also, technically this is wrong: « If it works, it will be the first time in history humans have physically changed the orbital trajectory of a space-based object. » ...because that happens every time we launch a rocket or land one.