4 ms·
I read some article that the distortions at 10.000km from the merger would be ~1mm, so you could feel them, but not be harmed by them. In contrast, if all that
by raducu 6y ago
I read some article that the distortions at 10.000km from the merger would be ~1mm, so you could feel them, but not be harmed by them.
In contrast, if all that energy was released as EM waves, you'd be cooked from far, far away.
Such peaceful are these gravitational waves.
- jfengel 6y agoI'm not so sure that a 1mm distortion would be safe. It's happening at the level of space itself, so it would change the way parts of molecules will relate to each other. It passes fast, but potentially you could fall apart at the molecular level. I am not a physicist so I could be completely wrong about that. And I'm not sure if it matters since it's probably accompanied by photons and probably neutrinos in sufficient quantity to wipe you out at that distance. (Not from the merger itself, but from any matter in its halo.)