CosmicRamiNov 12, 2022

Here's a really nice introduction article to the #astronomy field of research I am currently working in.

You've heard of Gravitational Waves (GWs) - but did you also know there is a GW spectrum - and much like the EM spectrum, different sources produce different frequencies of GWs.

The GWs we've so far discovered are generated by stellar mass black holes and neutron stars, but the research I am involved with is searching for GWs generated by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) - found in the hearts of galaxies. These SMBHs give off their gravitational radiation as galaxies merge and collide.

Though these are nanohertz frequencies and have wave periods lasting not seconds, but decades! So, we can't use terrestrial detectors to discover them. Instead, we use pulsars located around the Galaxy - each as an analogue to a giant interferometer arm.

This Thursday I am submitting my Master's Thesis on this very topic! For the last 12 months I have assessed 10 new millisecond pulsars to see how they improve the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array's sensitivity to detecting these GWs.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1187#.Y21aFzFt8P0.twitter

📸 Olena Shmahalo for NANOGrav

#Astrodon #Pulsars #Astrophysics

Show threadCosmicRamiNov 12, 2022

I've also written a little bit about pulsar timing arrays and how we use these wonderful, yet almost unreal sounding objects - pulsars - to look for GWs.

It's pretty wild ... we can measure parameters with these objects at such high accuracy and precision - for example, we can get down to the 100 nanosecond scale ... which translates to us knowing changes in the relative distance to about 30 metres between us and the pulsar.

Picture that - we can work out the distance to an object that is light years away to within ~30m of accuracy!

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/using-galactic-scale-detector-narrow-gravitational-waves

📸 DJ Champion

#Astrodon #Astrophysics #Pulsars

Using a Galactic-Scale Detector to narrow in on Gravitational Waves | Spaceaustralia

When supermassive black holes start to merge and collide they produce gravitational waves, with wave periods that can take years or even a decade. To observe them, we need a detector as big as the Milky Way Galaxy itself. Amazingly, we have one - and it’s made of pulsars. We had a chat with the team that’s using the Parkes radio telescope who are working towards this discovery.

Show threadLevel 98 🇺🇦
@CosmicRami I think the creativity involved to think of harnessing the phenomena of pulsars to measure gravitational waves, is really impressive!
Nov 13, 2022 at 1:41amWeb