APOD: 2023 June 29 Б A Message from the Gravitational Universe
Explanation:
Monitoring 68 pulsars
with very large
radio telescopes, the
North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav)
has uncovered evidence for the
gravitational wave (GW)
background
by
carefully measuring
slight shifts in the arrival times of pulses.
These
shifts are correlated between different
pulsars in a way that indicates that they are caused
by GWs.
This GW
background is likely due to hundreds of thousands or even millions of
supermassive black hole binaries.
Teams in Europe,
Asia and
Australia
have also independently reported their results today.
Previously, the
LIGO and
Virgo
detectors have detected higher-frequency GWs from the
merging of individual
pairs of massive orbiting objects,
such as stellar-mass
black holes.
The featured illustration highlights this
spacetime-shaking
result by depicting two orbiting
supermassive black holes and several of the
pulsars that would
appear to have slight timing shifts.
The imprint these
GWs
make on spacetime itself is illustrated by a
distorted grid.
Open Science:
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
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rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
