In the distant reaches of the cosmos, two black holes collide and merge in a violent crash. We can't see it or feel it, but the shock of that collision sends ripples propagating far and wide through the fabric of space and time.

Those distortions, known as gravitational waves, affect every molecule they come across — warping their size by a fraction of a proton. However, those changes are only detectible by some of the most highly calibrated and sensitive tools ever built by humans.

But what would those ripples in space-time look like if we could see them?

Thanks to a new video posted by British science presenter Steve Mould on YouTube, you don't have to simply imagine what a gravitational wave could look like in action.

I use lycra and a drill to explain gravitational waves. Full video here: https://t.co/lHIvrgBk5w pic.twitter.com/3erpnUeUSp — Steve Mould (@MouldS) August 9, 2016

In the video, Mould uses a piece of lycra that is blanketed atop some sort of hollow table-sized structure to simulate space-time.

He demonstrates how massive objects — like a planet or black hole — can distort space-time by placing a metal ball on that fabric, depressing it.

He then uses a drill and a contraption with two wheels to create the simulated gravitational waves produced when the two wheels orbit one another at great speed, rippling the fabric.

Gravitational waves simulated. Image: LIGO/T. PYLE



While Mould did the best he possibly could, the simulation isn't perfect. Space-time is a 3D structure, so representing it as a piece of cloth will always miss some of that structure.

That said, this is one of the best gravitational waves simulations we've seen out there today.

Scientists are able to directly study gravitational waves — which were first predicted more than 100 years ago by Albert Einstein — with the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Louisiana and Washington.

Since LIGO came online again after upgrades last year, the two powerful tools have picked up the signals from at least two different sets of black holes colliding billions of light-years away.

These direct detections have ushered in a new era of physics, allowing researchers to investigate the universe with gravity, possibly unlocking the keys to the secretive nature of black holes and other massive objects in the universe.