The discovery enabled the construction of the largest gravitational wave detector operating on a galactic scale and revealed further evidence of the existence of the gravitational wave background – invisible but extremely fast ripples in space that could help unravel some of the universe’s most important mysteries.
The research sheds new light on the world’s largest black holes, their role in the formation of the Universe, and the cosmic signature they leave behind. The lead author of two of the three studies, Dr. Matt Miles says the discovery will open new ways to understand the evolution of the universe. According to him, studying the background of gravitational waves makes it possible to hear the echo of cosmic events that occurred billions of years ago. This gives insight into how galaxies and the entire Universe evolve.
Additionally, the study detected the signal of gravitational waves resulting from the merger of supermassive black holes. This signal was stronger than expected and was recorded at one-third the rate of previous global experiments.
Scientists used the time series of pulsars to create a detailed map of gravitational waves. It turned out that the signal contained an unexpected “hot” region that could indicate the presence of a wave source such as a pair of black holes billions of times the mass of the Sun.
The MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, one of the most sensitive instruments in the world, was used to create these maps.
Source: Ferra
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