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Does anyone know how they would go about observing the gravitational waves? Through lensing effects? Or are they just depending on the orbital decay to demonstr

• jessriedel 15y ago
  I don't have any expertise in astrophysics (just physics), but I am pretty sure that white dwarfs aren't nearly strong enough to produce observable lensing. You need black holes or whole galaxies for that. Further, these stars are separated by less than the earth-moon distance, so they aren't individually resolvable. The fact that it is a binary system has been inferred from periodicities in it's brightness and spectrum. ("Astronomers measured the stars' relative motions by looking at the light signatures, or spectra, coming from the stars as they eclipse each other.") I think your guess is right that all the data about the gravitational waves will be taken from the orbital decay. This is actually a decent amount of data since the rate of decay isn't constant, and because the eclipse maneuver isn't a smooth process.
• CanSpice 15y ago
  They can (in theory) observe them using an observatory named LIGO, or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. It's essentially lasers set up to shoot along long corridors such that any changes in the distance between the ends can be measured. Gravitational waves will change this distance, so the laser interferometer should be able to measure gravitational waves. LIGO hasn't yet observed gravitational waves (it's currently being upgraded to "Advanced LIGO") but has set important upper limits on the strengths of gravitational waves. And importantly, it hasn't ruled them out.