Gravity Spins Stars Right Round Like a Record
In elementary school, you learn about gravity, the mysterious force that keeps us grounded on Earth. You know, the apple fell on his head, and he said to himself “There is only one culprit: Gravity!”. Well, it actually never hits his head, but that is not the point. All you learn is that it pulls things down, but in middle school and high school, we learn that gravity is more than just that. It is the reason that planets orbit the Sun and how the galaxy sort of works. But even though we have known that gravity exists for the last couple of centuries, we are learning more about its interactions with stars in the universe. Like how scientists just observed some rapidly-spinning stars called millisecond pulsars.
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| Illustration of Gravitational Wave Background |
Millisecond pulsars are stellar remains that spin at the speed of a hundred rotations per second. These stars produce precise radio pulses that act as a cosmic metronome. Scientists theorize that millisecond pulsars point to the existence of space-time ripples, called gravitational waves, which vibrate throughout the universe, affecting the radio pulses.
Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, and when they were, the astronomical community was amazed. Einstein’s theory of general relativity suggested that space-time can undulate when massive objects crash into one another. But Einstein could never prove that theory. But with powerful, modern detectors like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), we are finally able to detect them. But there are still many questions that remain, like how older gravitational waves have never been detected, but theoretically, have existed.
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| LIGO |
In January 2021, a group of astronomers working on the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) project detected a series of odd shifts in the signals and theorized that the shift may be caused by interference from the gravitational wave background. However, they have noted that there may be other causes as well, such as other pulsars. There is still a lot we don’t know about gravitational waves, but with more advanced technology and the best minds from all over the world working together, we will get closer to finding out the mystery behind gravitational waves.
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