The Universe is a turbulent place. Stars are exploding, neutron stars collide, and supermassive black holes are merging. All of these things and many more create gravitational waves. As a result, the cosmos is filled with a rippling sea of gravitational vibrations. While we have been able to directly detect gravitational waves since 2016, gravitational wave astronomy is still in its infancy. We have only been able to observe the gravitational ripples of colliding stellar black holes. Even then, all we can really detect is the final gravitational chirp created in the last moments of merging. We can, however, gather indirect evidence of the cosmic background of gravitational waves. Last year, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) released their first observations, which were based on millisecond pulsars. The idea behind the NANOGrav project is that pulsars emit very regular radio pulses. Millisecond pulsars are just rapidly rotating neutron stars that happen to sweep a beam of radio energy in our direction with each rotation. So, unless a neutron star experiences a rare starquake, the pulsar timing is so consistent we can use it as a cosmic clock. This means any small variation in the timing is due to a change in relative motion. As the cosmic gravitation waves ripple past a pulsar, its observed timing changes slightly. The shift isn’t large enough to observe with an individual pulsar, but it is large enough that a statistical analysis of many pulsars reveals the gravitational waves. MeerKAT results showing pulsar correlations across the sky. Credit: Miles, et al In the 2023 results, NANOGrav found evidence of cosmic gravitational waves but didn’t have enough data to pin down the source. But even this was a tremendous result. It took 15 years of observations just to prove the existence of these cosmic waves. Now a new observatory has released a data set, and it’s a game changer. The MeerKat radio array is a collection of 64 antennas located in South Africa and run by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). This week, SARAO released a series of papers on their results after just four and a half years. Where NANOGrav looked at 67 millisecond pulsars, MeerKAT gathered data on 83. It observed these pulsars with a similar resolution as NANOGrav, but did so in a third of the time. These results again confirm the existence of cosmic gravitational waves, but like the NANOGrav don’t confirm the origin. We still need more data to prove they are generated by binary black holes in the Milky Way. But now that we have two observational teams working on it, that necessary evidence should be found in the relatively near future. Reference: Agazie, Gabriella, et al. “The NANOGrav 15 yr data set: Evidence for a gravitational-wave background.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 951.1 (2023): L8. Reference: Miles, Matthew T., et al. “The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The 4.5-year data release and the noise and stochastic signals of the millisecond pulsar population.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2572. Reference: Miles, Matthew T., et al. “The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The first search for gravitational waves with the MeerKAT radio telescope.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2571. Reference: Grunthal, Kathrin, et al. “The MeerKAT pulsar timing array: Maps of the gravitational-wave sky with the 4.5 year data release.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2573. The post MeerKAT Confirms the Gravitational Wave Background of the Universe in Record Time appeared first on Universe Today.

Drummer admits he still breaks down "uncontrollably" listening to his brother's music. Continue reading…

One with nature, in every sense. Today, Kacey Musgraves released the new music video for her song "The Architect," which was included on her Deeper Well album that was released in March. The song is an absolute stunner, which finds Kacey tackling some deep subject matter in terms of the universe and how we all got here, as she marvels at simple creations. She questions whether everything in life was meticulously designed by God, wanting to see the “blueprints and plans” for everything because of how beautiful and confusing it can all be. In the lyrics, she mentions being “shapeable clay,” so I’m sure that’s where the idea to lay in the mud came from, which you'll see in the video: “Sometimes I look in the mirror And wish I could make a request Could I pray it away? Am I shapeable clay Or is this as good as it gets?” I'm thrilled to see "The Architect" get the full music video treatment, because it's such a beautiful song, and in typical Kacey fashion, she got pretty creative in terms of the visuals. There are some vast landscapes that show off mountains and valleys, as well as a few shots of her on horseback, as well as putting some grass-covered puzzle pieces together.. and there's also several shots of her completely in her birthday suit, covered in mud on the ground, looking absolutely amazing. She always does it tastefully if we see her au naturel, and I think the video is perfect. Everything she does is always so well-done and high quality, and this video is no exception. I'd tell you to do yourself a favor and check it out, but I don't think I really need to for this one. She doesn't miss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ4LAE2HpCg And as you might expect, there’s already tons of comments on the Youtube video, as well as the teasers on her social media accounts (mostly from women, actually), gawking at how amazing she looks and how equally stunning the song is: "I never knew mud could be so beautiful! I love your creativity as an artist and taking it somewhere beyond! You are truly one of a kind!" "Genius of a song, and as expected the video for it is a worthy piece of art." "Always been a huge fan of mud." "This song is so deep and lovely. It questions our purpose and existence but in the softest most beautiful way. Makes you thankful for life's little intricacies and details." "Gives me the same vibes as the 10 years old me watching Dixie Chick's Landslide videoclip on CMT for the first time while my parents cooking *chills*." 'If you wanted a thumbnail to attract viewers to this video....success." "All the Grammys, please." "Not the concept I was expecting but it is even better :) Awesome!!" "This song makes me cry EVERY TIME." "The best song on her best album 100%." Kacey recently delivered a gorgeous performance of “The Architect” at the CMA Awards a couple weeks ago you can watch here, if, like me, you can't get enough of this song either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgV4UKv0rY&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

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