Message #20653

[mccoy]

Now, we have a plot which describes (by numerical modelling) the inspiral GWs created by the two colliding black holes above depicted:


The gravitational waves we can see are created by the two masses  which accelerate toward each other (increase their revolution velocity being attracted by each other's gravities). Every ripple we see is a revolution of the system.
When the masses gradually approach each other, there are two effects:
1)Their acceleration increases due to greater attraction because of shorter distance
2)Their masses increase because the velocity is relativistically increasing (approaching the speed of light).

The net effect is to increase the ampliture of the ripples (masses are greater and greater) and to increase the frequency (revolutions are faster and faster).

At the end the masses (black holes in our case) collide merging into a single body. TGhere are no more ripples since there are no more inspiraling masses.