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Astronomers close in on new way to detect gravitational waves

Several teams hope to use pulsars in the Milky Way to detect ripples in space-time made by distant supermassive black holes.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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Astronomers could be on the verge of detecting gravitational waves from distant supermassive black holes — millions or even billions of times larger than the black holes spotted so far — an international collaboration suggests. The latest results from several research teams suggest they are closing in on a discovery after two decades of efforts to sense the ripples in space-time through their effects on pulsars, rapidly spinning spent stars that are sprinkled across the Milky Way.

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Nature 602, 194-195 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00170-y

References

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