![]() We’re going to learn about galaxy evolution and growth through cosmic time.” This will lead to a broadened understanding of the universe. Think of galactic-sized black holes that are spiraling with much longer orbital periods. “The gravitational waves we’ll detect are from supermassive black holes sitting at the cores of galaxies. “LIGO detected gravitational waves from stellar mass black holes -objects that are just a little bit bigger than the sun but form from stars that explode. “High-frequency waves have already been detected with LIGO,” said McLaughlin, who also directs the WVU Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Those gravitational waves, however, are different from the ones the IPTA is seeking out, McLaughlin said. According to NASA, that collision happened 1.3 billion years ago but the ripples didn’t make it to Earth until 2015. A sensitive instrument called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) observed the first gravitational waves when two black holes crashed into one another. WVU researchers already played a hand in first detecting gravitational waves in 2015, some 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted their existence in his theory of general relativity. The coalition’s goal is to discover low-frequency gravitational waves – a different sort from what’s already been identified - using high-precision timing observations of exotic stars called millisecond pulsars with the world’s largest radio telescopes. ![]() ![]() The hunt for more evidence of gravitational waves – ripples in spacetime formed by cataclysmic events in the distant universe – will be accelerated with a nearly $2 million National Science Foundation grant awarded to a West Virginia University scientist and her colleagues.Įberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy Maura McLaughlin will serve as principal investigator on the project, which will bolster a global network of researchers and telescopes called the International Pulsar Timing Array. ![]()
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