Gravitational waves and the geometry of spacetime

When speaking of our universe, it’s often said that “matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move.” This is the essence of Albert Einstein’s famous general theory of relativity, and describes how planets, stars, and galaxies move and influence the space around them. While general relativity captures much of the big in our universe, it’s at odds with the small in physics as described by quantum mechanics.