Gravitational Waves Simulator (2D)

Binary System

Mass of star 1 (M☉) 20

Mass of star 2 (M☉) 15

Initial orbital separation 6.0

Time speed 1.0×

Inspiraling — orbit decaying as energy radiates away.

Live Readout

Separation

6.0

Chirp frequency

0.0 Hz

Strain amplitude h

0.00

Time to merger

— s

How it works

Two massive stars orbiting each other radiate energy as gravitational waves — ripples in spacetime itself. That energy loss shrinks the orbit, which speeds up the orbit, which radiates more energy still: a runaway feedback loop called inspiral.

As the stars spiral closer, the gravitational-wave frequency sweeps upward — the famous chirp — while the strain amplitude h (the fractional stretch/squeeze a wave imprints on space) grows sharply, both scaling with the pair's chirp mass M_c = (m₁m₂)^3/5/(m₁+m₂)^1/5.

The strip at the bottom plots that strain over time exactly as a detector like LIGO would record it: a faint, slow ripple that rises in both pitch and loudness until the stars merge, at which point the signal peaks and rings down — the same waveform shape that led to the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

Star 1 Star 2

Detector strain h(t)