How can gravitational waves affect earth?

Question

Joseph Allen · Accepted Answer

Gravitational waves can have little or no impact on Earth.

General Relativity predicted gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime caused by massive objects. Only recently have detectors that are sensitive enough to detect gravitational waves been created. Gravitational waves have very small amplitudes. Furthermore, gravitational waves have very far-off sources, which further lessens their amplitude. A gravitational wave does distort spacetime and a wave passing through the Earth would distort the shape of the planet as it passed. The strongest possible gravitational wave would distort the shape of the Earth by about #10^-13m# which is only detectable by very sensitive equipment.

Nolan Aldridge · Answer

undefined The effects of gravitational waves on Earth are negligible and do not directly endanger human life or the stability of the planet; instead, they cause minute distortions in spacetime as they pass through the planet, which can be detected by sensitive instruments and reveal information about the gravitational wave sources—such as merging black holes or neutron stars.