Scientists Announce a Massive Gravitational Wave Discovery! New Physics At Play?

Astronomers have finally discovered the gravitational-wave background, the faint hum of the cosmos. This discovery shows that the universe is constantly vibrating with a frequency in the range of nanohertz, believed to be a result of the merging of supermassive black holes across the universe. This is important because astronomers previously thought that supermassive black holes cannot merge owing to the final parsec problem.

So, what exactly is the gravitational-wave background? Why did astronomers think that supermassive black holes could not merge to produce this hum? Finally, and most importantly, how is it going to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos?

The 66th episode of the Sunday Discovery Series answers all these questions in detail.

All Episodes Of The Series: https://bit.ly/369kG4p
Basics of Astrophysics series: https://bit.ly/3xII54M

RESEARCH PAPERS:

NanoGrav research papers - https://nanograv.org/news/15yrRelease
NANOGrav 15-year data set: https://bit.ly/3NI3g0T
EPTA & InPTA research papers - https://bit.ly/3rmSbeg
Parkes PTA research papers - https://bit.ly/43kdYAt
Chinese PTA research papers - https://bit.ly/3XYhq2R

Created By: Rishabh Nakra
Written & Researched By: Shreejaya Karantha
Narrated By: Jeffrey Smith