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.