Space and astronomy news
A pair of scientists who were part of the first gravitational wave discovery have developed a way to listen to the background noise of the Universe to detect thousands more.
A team of astronomers from the University of Cambridge recently showed how the Gaia mission could also help in the search for gravitational waves.
We’ve now had multiple detections of gravitational waves, opening up a whole new field: gravitational astronomy. We talk about the detections made so far, and how we can see the Universe in a whole new way.
The discovery of gravitational waves generated by the collision of two massive black holes could revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
Last March, international researchers from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) telescope at the South Pole claimed that they detected primordial “B-mode” polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. If confirmed, this would have been an incredibly important discovery for astrophysics, as it would constitute evidence of gravitational waves due to cosmic …
Continue reading “It Turns Out Primordial Gravitational Waves Weren’t Found”
A 14th magnitude supernova discovered in the spiral galaxy NGC 4666 earlier this month has recently brightened to 11th magnitude, making it not only the second brightest supernova of the year, but an easy find in an 8-inch or larger telescope. I made a special trip into the cold this morning for a look and saw …
Continue reading “End the Year with a Bang! See a Bright Supernova in Virgo”
A newly released documentary brings you behind the scenes in the hunt for gravitational waves. The 20-minute film, called “LIGO, A Passion for Understanding,” follows the scientists working to create one of the most powerful scientific tools ever made: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories (LIGO). You can watch the documentary above.
Andrei Linde, a professor in the Department of Physics at Stanford University, is one of the main authors of the inflationary universe theory, that the universe underwent a brief but remarkably accelerated expansion immediately following the Big Bang. Today, scientists announced that they’ve found direct evidence of primordial gravitational waves, which would provide a “smoking …
Last week the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) stated rather nonchalantly that they will be hosting a press conference on Monday, March 17th, to announce a “major discovery.” Without a potential topic for journalists to muse on, this was as melodramatic as it got. But then the Guardian posted an article on the subject and …
[/caption] Gravitational waves have some similar properties to light. They move at the same speed in a vacuum – and with a certain frequency and amplitude. Where they differ from light is that they are not scattered or absorbed by matter, in the way that light is. Thus, it’s likely that primordial gravitational waves, that …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Gravitational Waves”