Listening for Gravitational Waves Using Pulsars

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- Elizabeth Landau

www.nasa.gov

By using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and, more recently, the European Virgo gravitational-wave detector scientists have been the observation of gravitational waves which are 5 detections, they had been found. But scientists still don't detect any gravitational wave signals from supermassive black holes. When galaxies collide, their central black holes tend to spiral toward each other, releasing gravitational waves in their cosmic dance. To explore this uncharted area of gravitational wave science, researchers look not to human-made machines, but to a natural experiment in the sky called a pulsar timing array. Because their rapid pulse of radio emission is so predictable, a large array of well-understood pulsars can be used to measure extremely subtle abnormalities, such as gravitational waves.

Researchers also found that while bigger galaxies have bigger black holes and produce stronger gravitational waves when they combine, these mergers also happen fast, shortening the time period for detection. As all supermassive black holes are so distant, gravitational waves, which travel at the speed of light, take a long time to arrive at Earth and open many questions related how galaxies merge and what will happen when the Milky Way approaches Andromeda.

"Detecting gravitational waves from billion-solar-mass black hole mergers will help unlock some of the most persistent puzzles in galaxy formation," said Leonidas Moustakas.

by Dini Dwintika Karuniati

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