“Detecting the background of gravitational waves is like listening to the hum of a large group of people talking at a party.”
The NANOGrav consortium of astronomers has discovered the first evidence of a backdrop of long-wavelength gravitational waves filling space, or “ripples in the fabric of space-time.” This was reported by the press service of the American Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NASA: First Evidence of ‘Ripples in the Fabric of Space-Time’
NASA explained:
The movement of black holes and other massive objects in space can create ripples in the fabric of the universe called gravitational waves.
These waves are thought to have been created by supermassive black holes, billions of times the mass of our Sun, that orbited each other before merging. As scientists figuratively compare, detecting the background of gravitational waves is analogous to listening to the hum of a large group of people talking at a party, without distinguishing any particular voice.
NASA noted that the background detected by NANOGrav could help scientists better understand how gravitational waves are created and what happens to them as they propagate through the universe. They can also be used to study supermassive black hole mergers, events that can last for millions of years. Scientists believe that such mergers occur in most galaxies and affect their evolution.
