The big gravity wave announcement is expected on Thursday. This event could be a new frontier in space exploration and open up a wide range of possibilities for understanding the universe and its evolution. Gravitational waves are the result of massive events such as the merging of black holes or neutron stars.
They cause a weak expansion and contraction of space, which can be detected as discrepancies in precisely synchronized signals. This mixture of signals forms a random or “stochastic” buzz known as the background of gravitational waves.
On June 29, 2023, the North American Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Observatory (NANOGrav) will organize a global announcement that will shed light on research conducted by the International Pulsar Timing Array, a global consortium of gravitational wave detectors: NANOGrav of North America; the European Pulsar Timing Array; the Indian Pulsar Timing Array Project; and the Parkes Pulsar Timing System of Australia.
Detection of the stochastic background gravitational radiation can provide a wealth of information about populations of astrophysical sources and processes in the very early Universe that are not available by any other means. Gravitational waves can give us information right up to the beginning of inflation, just ~10 -32 seconds after the Big Bang.
The cosmic microwave background, or relic radiation, is another relic of the Big Bang. It arose a few moments after our Universe began to tick and space began to cool. The bubbling foam that was everything froze into an opaque soup of subatomic particles in the form of ionized plasma.
The discovery of a background of gravitational waves could open up new possibilities for the study of the universe and its evolution. The scientific community looks forward to the announcement from NANOGrav on June 29.
