Watching Gravitational Waves Move the Earth - The Cosmic Companion Feb. 4, 2021
First predicted a century ago, gravitational waves have remained elusive. Now, a new age of astronomy awaits...
Gravitational waves could open our eyes to a new generation of astronomy. Here’s how we can detect these elusive waves through their effects on Earth.
Millisecond pulsars, like the one pictured here, could provide astronomers with the first direct evidence for gravitational waves. Image credit: NASA
By James Maynard
Supermassive objects such as black holes and neutron stars warp spacetime around them, and interactions between these bodies can result in the formation of gravitational waves, similar to ripples in a pond. However, these waves, postulated more than 100 years ago, cannot be seen directly like light or radio waves.
Now, a new study by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center (PFC) has detected a low-frequency signal that might be gravitational waves.
“We can’t yet say with confidence that what we’re seeing is gravitational waves, but if it is, the “signal” makes a lot of sense given what we think we know about supermassive black holes. This was always how this was going to play out… enticing hints of a signal before we would be able to definitively claim a detection. We’re on the right track to make that definitive assessment in just a couple of years,” Dustin Madison, a postdoctoral researcher at West Virginia University (WVU).
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