Albert Einstein Discovered A Binary Pulsar: Two Dense Stars Co-Orbiting Stars

n 1916, Albert Einstein predicted that catastrophic events such as supernovae and colliding black holes would produce ripple-like distortions in the fabric of space-time – called “gravitational waves.” In the 1970s, astronomers discovered a binary pulsar – two dense stars co-orbiting stars – which, according to the general theory of relativity, should have produced gravitational waves. By measuring the change in the orbits over the course of years, they found that the stars were behaving as predicted by general relativity. This demonstrated that Einstein’s predictions were possible.

Last year, gravitational waves themselves were observed for the first time, generated from colliding black holes a billion light years from earth. The discovery