NANOGrav’s 15-year effort yields evidence for universal background of gravitational waves


The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope, photo credit Jay Young.

In a series of papers to be published June 28th in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, NANOGrav reports an analysis pointing to the existence of low-frequency gravitational waves permeating our Universe.

The NANOGrav Collaboration has found the first evidence for low-frequency gravitational waves permeating the cosmos. This finding was made possible with 15 years of pulsar observations that turn the Milky Way into a galaxy-sized gravitational-wave detector.

NANOGrav observes an ensemble of ultra-stable millisecond pulsars known as a pulsar timing array with the world’s largest telescopes, including the Green Bank Telescope, the CHIME telescope, the Very Large Array, and (formerly) the Arecibo Telescope. NANOGrav is also a member of the International Pulsar Timing Array, which also includes the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array in Australia, the European Pulsar Timing Array, and the Indian Pulsar Timing Array.

Read more at NANOGrav’s website.

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