We may have found hints of gravitational waves permeating the universe

By Leah Crane

Tonia Klein / NANOGrav

Everything in the universe is constantly being stretched and squeezed by gravitational waves, ripples in space-time caused by the movements of massive objects. Now, astronomers may have caught the first hints of the sea of gravitational waves that permeates everything, called the gravitational wave background.

The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) consortium used a so-called pulsar timing array to attempt to build a sort of map of gravitational waves. Pulsars are neutron stars that rotate extremely rapidly and regularly, sending …