Do you hear about gravitational waves ? Ok in a significant development, an international team of astronomers, which included researchers from seven Indian institutes, has for the first time detected the low-pitched “hum” of gravitational waves propagating throughout the cosmos. Albert Einstein predicted that such waves would exist.
One of the six most sensitive radio telescopes in the world, India’s upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) in Pune, was essential in the discovery of the enduring hum. It is believed that the merging of two super-massive black holes
in the early cosmos, not long after the Big Bang, is where the gravitational waves (GW) first appeared.
Scientists anticipate that this finding will help them understand more about the nature of physical reality and provide light on the nature of merging super-massive black holes and what causes them to collide.
Why this discovery is so significant ?
The discoveries were made after 15 years of observations by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), which included more than 190 researchers, including those from the Indian Pulsar Timing Array (), which used uGMRT. The results were published in a series of papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Thursday. The signal was gathered and adjusted using the Indian telescope. and improve the signal’s precision in order to confirm the “hum” of the cosmos that their European colleagues had discovered.
The pulsar timing array experiment’s initial run began in 2002, and InPTA joined in 2016. Gravitational waves were initially theorised by Einstein in 1916, but they weren’t really observed until the National Science Foundation-funded LIGO experiment in 2016 when it discovered the waves from a pair of far-off merging black holes. However,
Compared to NANOGrav, LIGO discovered gravitational waves that were significantly more frequent.
Why Einstein comes here ?
According to Einstein’s theory, gravitational waves change the arrival times of these radio flashes and thereby affect the measured ticks of pulsars, which are also known as our cosmic clocks,” said Bhal Chandra Joshi of NCRA-TIFR, Pune, who formed the InPTA cooperation throughout the last ten years. But until recently, no one had noticed this alteration. Astronomers use sensitive telescopes due to the small size of these changes. To distinguish these modifications from other disruptions, use tools like the improved GMRT and a group of radio pulsars. It takes years to search for these elusive nano-hertz gravitational waves because of the signal’s sluggish fluctuation.
The pulsar timing array experiment’s initial run began in 2002, and InPTA joined in 2016. Researchers from NCRA (Pune), TIFR (Mumbai), IIT (Roorkee), IISER (Bhopal), IIT (Hyderabad), IMSc (Chennai), and RRI (Bengaluru) are participating
in the InPTA experiment alongside their Japanese counterparts from Kumamoto University.
How you can listen to Hum sound ?
Mayuresh Surnis, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhopal, explained the incident as follows: “If you convert the GW to sound, the background noticed may be dubbed a hum. The backdrop is created by superimposing the GW from many supermassive black hole binary sources. More data analysis will allow us to determine what
Black holes , Image : pixabay.com
They were like dark holes. While LIGO detected the GW at high frequency, we did so at low frequency. Consequently, we are looking for the whole range of GWaves.
It is wonderful to see our uGMRT data being used for ongoing global work on gravitational wave astronomy, said the centre director at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune, which manages the uGMRT. European PTA scientists working with their InPTA counterparts from India and Japan have released comprehensive findings from the analysis of pulsar data gathered over a 25-year period with six of the greatest radio telescopes in the world. This comprises more than three years’ worth of extremely sensitive data gathered utilising the uGMRT, India’s biggest radio telescope, and its flexibility in the rare low radio frequency band.
The signal from pulsars (dead stars), which we are attempting to extract, is extremely feeble, he continued. When the signal travels through the medium of a galaxy, it becomes warped. A low-frequency telescope like the GMRT is necessary to rectify this signal. Following signal cleaning, the signal’s precision improves, assisting scientists utilising GMRT in finding the source of the low-frequency gravitational waves.
FAQ :
What is the size of black hole ?
- In almost all galaxies, supermassive black holes are so large that they are several million to a billion times bigger than the Sun. When galaxies merge, black holes are predicted to come together after a lengthy spiral dance. When black holes merge, gravitational waves are produced.
Is all Galaxy contain Black hole ?
- Almost all galaxies contain supermassive black holes that are several million to a billion times as big as the Sun.
What happen when black holes collide ?
- When black holes collide across the cosmos and in all directions, these waves converge and create a gravitational wave background hum. The term stochastic gravitational wave background refers to this humming sound.
Q. What are pulsars?
# Pulsars are rapidly rotating compact dead stars which emit bright beams of radio light from their poles.
What are Pulsar Timing Array ?
Several millisecond pulsars can spin 100 times per second without pausing.
To maintain precise time, researchers keep an eye on a variety of millisecond pulsars.
The experiment is hence known as a pulsar timing array. waves due to gravity
interact with pulsars, stretching and compressing space-time, altering the moment
at which the pulses arrive at Earth.
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