User:Operator873/sandbox/Standard Siren

Standard Siren
Gravitational waves that originate from the merger of massive stellar objects, such as Neutron stars or black holes, propagate through space in a predictable manner. During the inspiral phase, the mass of the binary system directly affects the amplitude and shape of the gravitational waveform which is emitted. Because the amplitude falls off inversely with distance, measuring the waveform at the center of the system allows the luminosity distance to be estimated. Therefore, a standard siren can be used as a distance indicator on a cosmological scale.