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Astronomy

Using Pulsar Timing Arrays to Detect Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves

Quick fact

The pulsar timing array technique was first proposed in 1978 by Sazhin and Detweiler. In 2023, several collaborations (like NANOGrav) announced evidence for the long-sought gravitational wave background.

Why this is interesting

You know how GPS satellites keep precise time? Pulsars are like cosmic GPS satellites, spinning with such regularity that they can detect ripples in spacetime itself. But how do we use these dead stars as giant gravitational wave detectors?