Interesting fact of the day: A gravitational wave, having energy, also generates its own gravitational field in addition to itself. Though this field is insanely weak.

Note this is not the same as saying a gravitational field has its own gravitational field. It is only the wave that has energy, and thus its own field. A gravitational wave only occurs when an object with a gravitational field accelerates (and orbiting another object counts as acceleration).

@freemo i still think its something to do with electrostatics trapping things nearby to hold on to energy for them, but i'm not an electrowizard :blobcatnerd:

@icedquinn

Well its a hard thing to test experimentally.

But the reason here is just energy, gravitational waves have energy, so they must have their own gravitational field.

@freemo there were some smol experiments in to making something counter-spin in the right way caused it to appear to weigh less, as though mass was related to some kind of angular momentum of the host body.

since electrostatics contract to hold on to potential, and angular rotation is still energy, it seems like something vaguely similar to this is why objects get bullied in space. (atoms are always bullying each other like this anyway)

that gets in to spooky stuff that ended up disappearing in to secret labs and my brain is too smooth for this kind of thing
@freemo i did bring all this up to a physicist who works in space equipment about a month ago and he just looked at me like :blobcathuh: that sounds very experimental.

so i didn't get laughed out of the room.
dunno how i feel about this.
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@icedquinn

To be honest he probably was trying not to roll his eyes tok hard as he wanted to encourage you to remain curious and explore.

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