Well, space isn't a perfect vacuum, is it? It's pretty damn close, but you'll still encounter the occasional hydrogen molecule.
I mean, were talking about 1.7 seconds delay over a distance of 130 million lightyears! That's virtually nothing.
It also depends on the starting point. If both the gravity wave and the light start in the middle of a star or even just inside a shell of an exploding star, or, in case of black holes, inside a cloud of matter that surrounds the hole waiting to be sucked in, there is more than enough matter to delay the light.
5 Comments
Chais@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 2y
Well, space isn't a perfect vacuum, is it? It's pretty damn close, but you'll still encounter the occasional hydrogen molecule.
I mean, were talking about 1.7 seconds delay over a distance of 130 million lightyears! That's virtually nothing.
pennomi@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 2y
Chais@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y
Was thinking about that, too.
Fermion@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 2y
And if we had enough ligos throughout the solar system, maybe we could even image dark matter distributions.
Treczoks@kbin.social · 7 pts · 2y
It also depends on the starting point. If both the gravity wave and the light start in the middle of a star or even just inside a shell of an exploding star, or, in case of black holes, inside a cloud of matter that surrounds the hole waiting to be sucked in, there is more than enough matter to delay the light.
John_Hasler@lemmy.one · 6 pts · 2y
They are not emitted simultaneously. The collision is messy. The GRB comes from leftover bits of neutron star.