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So what is a gravity wave???

Now, I'm no physicist, but I do know how to do a bit of research- or rather, simply use the NASA link on my page and search the archives. Anyway, seeing as this is a weird question that has a cool answer, I'll discuss it.

Light comes in waves. Water comes in waves. Homework comes in waves! So why not gravity? Gravity waves are hypothetical waves that are kind of like "ripples" in space time. Think of it this way: space-time (that stuff we're sitting in) is a huge sheet. Whenever I put an object on it, like Sunnyd's yellow bouncy ball (the sun!), it causes a little dent in the sheet (that is, if the ball doesn't bounce off...).

From: Gravitational Waves

That little dent, in this instance, is gravity. Now, say Sunnyd got ahold of a bowling ball and put it on the sheet. Providing that you can still hold it, that sheet will be jiggling a little at first, right? Think of that bowling ball as some supermassive object, like... a huge star, and those vibrations are gravity waves- like ripples in a pond. As I get a little mischievious and start shifting that bowling ball around, even more "ripples" are made- thus, more gravity waves. Of course, that's an oversimplified explantion, so if you can rectify this, feel free. These are extremely hard to detect as they get to us, though, because all those gravity waves from the black holes nearby (not that near! No need to panic) get fainter and fainter as they move away from the source. A new satellite, LISA, is expected to launch in 2011 to detect these gravity waves. My source is: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/topics/gwaves/gwaves.html.

I'd like to commend everyone who has answered this first physics question box, but some things to note for next time:

Make sure to paraphrase your answers ( I blame myself for this, so it isn't your fault)

Make sure it sounds vaguely scientific- but if Sunnyd or I can't decipher it, you've gone overboard!

Good work everybody!