描述: 爱因斯坦的广义相对论预言了引力波的存在：以光速传播的时空波纹。产生这种波的一种方法是两个物体相互绕行。引力波最早是通过观测双星 PSR B1913+16 （一颗中子星和一颗脉冲星围绕一个共同的质量中心运行）推断出来的。由于它通过辐射引力波来损耗能量，因此轨道周期逐渐缩短。

2015 年 9 月，激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）的两个引力波探测器首次探测到引力波。引力波可以携带任何其他手段都无法获取的天体信息，特别是关于运行和合并的黑洞或中子星的信息。

相关词条

• 光球
• 太阳
• 星系棒

词条和定义状态： 该术语的英文原始定义已通过天文研究人员和教师的审核
该术语及其定义的译文仍待审核

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