2023-07-04 04:00:11
Chinese scientists have recently discovered evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, opening a new chapter in research on this topic. This discovery was made thanks to the observation of pulsars with the spherical 500-metre aperture (FAST) radio telescope.
Chinese scientists have recently discovered evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, opening a new chapter in research on this subject.
Credit: CAS New Media Lab
This research was conducted by the Chinese Collaboration of the Pulsar Timing Network (CPTA), which brings together researchers from several institutes, including the National Astronomical Observatories of the Academy of Sciences (An academy of sciences is a learned society whose role is to promote Chinese research…) (NAOC). Their findings were published online June 28 in the journal Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA). Other international collaborations will announce similar results. See our latest news on this subject: These gravitational waves of a new type could come from the primitive Universe.
Accelerating massive objects disturb the surrounding space-time and produce “ripples”, i.e. waves gravitational. These signals are extremely weak, but they offer a direct method to probe the masses which do not emit light (Light is the set of electromagnetic waves visible to the eye…). Astronomers therefore seek to use gravitational waves to better understand the formation of structures (The formation of structures is the primordial process of the genesis of observable structures…) of the Universe and the evolution of the most massive celestial objects, at namely supermassive black holes.
Chinese scientists have recently discovered key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, opening a new chapter in research on this topic.
Credit: CAS New Media Lab
Thanks to the high sensitivity of the FAST radio telescope, the CPTA research team monitored 57 millisecond pulsars for 41 months. The team found quadrupole correlation evidence consistent with the prediction of nanohertz gravitational waves, with a statistical confidence of 4.6 sigma.
Pulsar timing network with spacetime fabric and black holes.
Credit: OzGrav
The CPTA data collection period is relatively short at present. However, thanks to the high sensitivity of FAST, the CPTA achieved similar sensitivity to other PTAs. Future observations will extend the CPTA data collection period and help identify the astronomical sources of the detected signals.
The use of nanohertz gravitational waves in cosmic observation is very important for studying key problems in contemporary astrophysics (Astrophysics (from the Greek astro = star and physiqui = physics) is a contemporary branch…) such as holes supermassive blacks, the history of galaxy mergers (Galaxies is a French quarterly journal dedicated to science fiction. With…) and the formation of large-scale structures (La grandescale, also called aerial scale or self-scale, is a…) in the Universe.
FAST helps find evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves thanks to its high sensitivity.
Credit: CAS NAOC
Detecting nanohertz gravitational waves is a challenge, due to their very low frequency, with periods up to several years and wavelengths up to several light-years. For the moment (The moment designates the smallest constituent element of time. The moment is not…), observation (Observation is the action of attentive monitoring of phenomena, without the will to …) long-term millisecond pulsars with extreme stability in their rotation is the only known method to effectively detect these gravitational waves.
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