Astronomers might have caught a glimpse of the universe’s gravitational wave background
Tonia Klein / NANOGrav
Every part within the universe is consistently being stretched and squeezed by gravitational waves, ripples in space-time brought on by the actions of huge objects. Now, astronomers might have caught the primary hints of the ocean of gravitational waves that permeates every part, known as the gravitational wave background.
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) consortium used a so-called pulsar timing array to aim to construct a kind of map of gravitational waves. Pulsars are neutron stars that rotate extraordinarily quickly and often, sending …