
In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves from general relativity, but they were first detected only in 2015 with the LIGO detectors.
Mass and energy curve spacetime, like a heavy ball bending a trampoline. When mass accelerates, the curvature changes, and this change spreads out in all directions as a wave. As it passes by, the wave alternately stretches and compresses the distance between objects by a tiny amount — over a kilometer, this change is smaller than the size of an atomic nucleus.