We often think about time and space as two completely different aspects of our physical reality. But from a scientific standpoint, as one of Albert Einstein when he stipulated his famous theory of general relativity, time and space can be perceived as a single element known simply as spacetime.
The renowned physicist was also the first who brought the idea of space not being something totally “empty” in the literal sense of the word. Instead, space itself can be bent, and the bending of space itself is one of the crucial factors that explain how gravity works. Time and space are very closely connected, as you cannot possibly have one without the other.
Dying stars can lead to gravitational waves
According to a new study that livescience.com tells us about, new research suggests that dying stars create massive “cocoons” of gas that not only disrupt the fabric of spacetime but also generate gravitational waves. The new discovery, which was presented at a recent scientific meeting, indicates that the gravitational waves produced by the cocoons could provide valuable insights into the dramatic deaths of giant stars.
While initially studying the gravitational waves emitted by collapsing black holes, researchers were surprised to conclude that the turbulent gas cocoons surrounding dying stars became a significant factor in the calculations. These cocoons, formed when the star’s outer layers interact with powerful jets, exhibit the necessary asymmetrical motion to generate gravitational waves, making them impossible to ignore in future observations.
Ore Gottlieb, the lead researcher of the new sttudy, explained:
A jet starts deep inside of a star and then drills its way out to escape,
It’s like when you drill a hole into a wall. The spinning drill bit hits the wall and debris spills out of the wall. The drill bit gives that material energy. Similarly, the jet punches through the star, causing the star’s material to heat up and spill out. This debris forms the hot layers of a cocoon.
The dependency of space on time and vice-versa was exemplified by the renowned American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in a very coherent way. He said that you could not possibly tell a friend to meet you at a certain place without telling him the hour as well. Nor can you ask him to meet you at a certain hour without establishing a meeting spot.
