In this artist’s interpretation, a pair of supermassive black holes (top left) emits gravitational … [+]
Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration
A team of scientists from around the world has unveiled the inaugural evidence of a cosmic gravitational wave background spanning the entire universe. According to their research, this background could be the result of numerous pairs of supermassive black holes orbiting each other for millions of years before merging.
Through their study, these scientists were able to detect the effects of these space-time ripples on light emitted by pulsars, which are rapidly spinning dead stars that pulsate every millisecond. This groundbreaking revelation sheds light on the rumbles and fluctuations in the fabric of the universe.
Galaxy-Sized Detector
Utilizing a network of 25 pulsars scattered across the Milky Way, the astronomers constructed a gravitational-wave detector on a scale comparable to that of a galaxy. Over the course of 15 years, they identified low-frequency gravitational waves with wavelengths spanning several light years.
“This finding provides crucial evidence for the existence of gravitational waves at extremely low frequencies,” explained Stephen Taylor, co-leader of the search and chair of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration. “After years of meticulous work, NANOGrav is opening up an entirely new perspective on the gravitational-wave universe.”
Ripples in Spacetime
What the scientists observed was evidence of the precise rhythms of light emitted by pulsars being influenced by the periodic stretching and squeezing of space-time caused by these long-wavelength gravitational waves in the background. This detection demonstrates that gravitational waves are not limited to short-wavelength fluctuations, as previously speculated. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) first detected such waves in 2015, originating from smaller black hole mergers.
The Lovell
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Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
