Gravitational 'noise' could be easier to detect than previously thought.

Credit: LIGO

Gravitational waves were first observed in 2015 by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors (pictured). This demonstrated the existence of binary black holes and suggested that these are more abundant than some previous estimates indicated. Tania Regimbau, at the Cote d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France, and her colleagues from the LIGO/Virgo collaboration calculated the odds of detecting a constant background noise made by similar black-hole mergers across the observable Universe that are too distant to be detected individually. They find that LIGO and Virgo could potentially detect this background when they reach peak sensitivity in about four years time.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 131102 (2016)