Astronomers Might Have Detected the Background Gravitational Waves of the Universe
A new data release from a gravitational wave consortium has revealed indications of the long sough-after gravitational wave background (GWB).
Gravitational Waves Could Explain why There’s More Matter Than Antimatter in the Universe
One of the questions underpinning both philosophy and science is “why are we here”? Ask an astrophysicist, and they might answer with an imbalance between matter and antimatter at the beginning of the universe. While that is a (relatively) simple explanation, it then begs the question – why was there an imbalance in the first …
Primordial Gravitational Waves Continue to Elude Astronomers
New observations put further constraints on primordial gravitational waves, but still haven’t found them yet.
Gravitational-Wave Observatories Should be Able to Detect Primordial Black Hole Mergers, if They’re out There
The tumultuous era of the big bang may have been chaotic enough to flood the universe with primordial black holes. Eventually some of those black holes will find each other and merge, sending out ripples of gravitational waves. A comprehensive search for those gravitational wave signatures hasn’t found anything, putting tight constraints on the abundance …
Simulating the Universe a Trillionth of a Second After the Big Bang
The Big Bang remains the best way to explain what happened at the beginning of the Universe. However, the incredible energies flowing during the early part of the bang are almost incomprehensive to our everyday experience. Luckily, computers aren’t so attached to normal human ways of thinking and have long been used to model …
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China’s Planning to Launch a Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory in the 2030s: TianQin. Here’s how it’ll Stack up Against LISA
The successful detection of gravitational waves has been a game-changer for astronomy. And now the new frontier is in space, with satellite-based detection systems currently in development that will uncover some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. And while the team behind LISA is now developing that observatory in space, it just may be outclassed by …
Gravitational waves could show what’s happening inside a star as it’s going supernova
It’s kind of hard to see inside a star as it’s blowing up, because of the whole “blowing up” part, but gravitational waves – tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime itself – may help astronomers unlock how the biggest stars die.
How were Supermassive Black Holes Already Forming and Releasing Powerful Jets Shortly After the Big Bang?
A series of studies has shown that the seeds of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets existed much sooner than expected
A New Atomic Clock has been Built that Would be off by Less than a Second Since the Big Bang
Physicists have developed an atomic clock so accurate that it would be off by less than a single second in 14 billion years. That kind of accuracy and precision makes it more than just a timepiece. It’s a powerful scientific instrument that could measure gravitational waves, take the measure of the Earth’s gravitational shape, and …
Gravitational waves were only recently observed, and now astronomers are already thinking of ways to use them: like accurately measuring the expansion rate of the Universe
Neutron stars scream in waves of spacetime when they die, and astronomers have outlined a plan to use their gravitational agony to trace the history of the universe. Join us as we explore how to turn their pain into our cosmological profit.