What are inspirals?
2 May 2006 12:05:00 UTC
Topic 191164
(moderation:
According to Message 30589 , I wonder what it is. dict.leo has nothing (I'm from germany), and the google results do not help me either. Needless to say I'm not very knowledgeable about the inner terminology of gravitational physics...but always very interested :-)
Thanks in advance
fettlos
What are inspirals?
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Hi fettlos,
“Inspiral� refers to a binary star system (usually a combination of neutron stars and/or black holes), specifically the first portion of an expected gravitational waveform to be detected with LIGO, where the stars spiral in towards each other. This is followed by “merger�, which is the event where the stars collide/combine, and in the case of black holes, the merger waveform is followed by one called “ringdown� which is expected to be similar to the audio waveform of a bell that has been rung.
RE: Hi
)
What would we do without you Chipper? When I saw this thread my mind went blank and all I could think about was the band Inspiral Carpets.
Physics is for gurls!
RE: Hi
)
Oh my, I was closer than I thought. It's been my best guess that it has to be something "spiraling inwards". But, as we can see, my tiny inferior brain wasn't able to put together the obvious ;-)
So thank you Chipper for this lucid explanation.
greetz
fettlos
RE: Oh my, I was closer
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Hey, mine's tiny and inferior too. I've only slowly realized that perseverance is key. If you've googled “binary inspiral� then you've seen some good examples of what the super-brains are working on! :)