Gravitational Wave Sources May Be “Closer” Than We Think

It has been argued that the energy content in time varying spacetimes can be obtained by using the approximate Lie symmetries of the geodesics equations in that spacetime. When applied to cylindrical gravitational waves, it gives an enhancement of the waves. While, according to this proposal, the energy of the waves does go to zero asymptotically, it decreases as the inverse square root of the radial distance instead of the inverse of the distance. Since SN1987A showed distinct asphericity, a substantial portion of the energy could have come out as gravitational waves. As such, the claim of Weber to have observed gravitational waves from it needs to be re-assessed.