Scientists May Have Finally Heard the ‘Hum’ of the Big Bang

Things are about to change in a supermassive way in the world of astrophysics. An international team of scientists have discovered evidence for a new type of signal they have long searched for—one that will give us a greater understanding into black holes, and the origins of galaxies and the universe as we know it.

The team, coordinated by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), announced Wednesday that they have discovered evidence of the gravitational wave background (GWB). This is a type of signal emitted by the universe’s population of colliding galaxies and supermassive blackholes—also known as binary blackholes. Scientists believe it may also contain faint traces of the gravitational ripples produced by the Big Bang.

While scientists have long theorized that the gravitational wave background existed, they haven’t been able to gather such strong evidence for its existence and impact on the universe until NANOGrav’s latest success. GWB signals can be thought of as an entirely new way for scientists to observe and study some of the most intense yet consequential events in the entire universe. As such, they’re expected to have incredibly long-lasting implications for the future of astrophysics.

Read more at The Daily Beast.