BREAKING: Scientists just found the first evidence for a background hum of gravitational waves that permeates our universe.
, can detect shorter waves, like those made when two star-sized black holes smash together. But it can’t feel longer, lower frequency waves, which some astronomers think are key to unlocking the universe’s history.
“If we want to observe the largest black holes to further understand galaxy evolution, as well as test theories at the frontiers of modern physics, we need to be able to observe low-frequency gravitational waves,” says Vanderbilt University astronomerAstronomers recorded a whopping 35 gravitational wave events in just 5 monthsSuch waves come from the most massive black holes, which should be merging all across the universe to create background noise, like cosmic TV static.
To detect such a low-frequency signal, astronomers needed an experiment larger than the entire Earth—possibly something the size of the whole galaxy. Luckily, nature provided just the tool:. Pulsars are the dead cores of the heaviest stars, which spew out jets of light and spin unbelievably fast.
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