Gravitational waves as a research area encompass the theoretical modeling, detection, and astrophysical interpretation of ripples in spacetime predicted by general relativity and alternative gravity theories. This field integrates general relativity, numerical relativity, data analysis, and experimental physics to study compact object mergers, core-collapse supernovae, cosmological backgrounds, and potential beyond–standard-model phenomena. Research focuses on waveform modeling, parameter estimation, tests of gravity in the strong-field regime, and multi-messenger astronomy combining electromagnetic and neutrino signals. It also drives the development and operation of ground- and space-based interferometric observatories, pulsar timing arrays, and analysis pipelines for weak, transient, and stochastic signals.
Scientists have uncovered the first robust evidence of a black hole and neutron star crashing together but orbiting in an oval path rather than a perfect circle just before they merged. This discovery challenges long-standing ...
Astronomy
Mar 11, 2026
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Neutron stars harbor some of the most extreme environments in the universe: their densities soar to several times those of atomic nuclei, and they possess some of the strongest gravitational fields of any known objects, surpassed ...
Astronomy
Mar 6, 2026
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A new study published in Nature Astronomy indicates that the dense, star- and dark-matter–rich environments around supermassive black hole binaries pack on the order of a million solar masses into each cubic parsec. The team ...
When the densest objects in the universe collide and merge, the violence sets off ripples, in the form of gravitational waves, that reverberate across space and time, over hundreds of millions and even billions of years. ...
Astronomy
Mar 5, 2026
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We have known for several decades that the universe is expanding. Scientists use multiple techniques to measure the present-day expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. These methods are internally consistent ...
Astronomy
Feb 24, 2026
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Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive stars that collapsed after supernova explosions and are made up mostly of subatomic particles with no electric charge (i.e., neutrons). When two neutron stars collide, they ...
Hypothetical dark matter stars known as "boson stars" could leave telltale ripples across the cosmos, offering researchers a new way to probe the invisible forces shaping the universe. In 2019, a strange event was observed ...
Astronomy
Feb 13, 2026
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Supermassive black hole binaries form naturally when galaxies merge, but scientists have only confidently observed a very few of these systems that are widely separated. Black hole binaries that closely orbit each other have ...
Astronomy
Feb 12, 2026
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An international collaboration of astrophysicists that includes researchers from Yale has created and tested a detection system that uses gravitational waves to map out the locations of merging black holes—known as supermassive ...
Astronomy
Feb 5, 2026
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For those who watch gravitational waves roll in from the universe, GW250114 is a big one. It's the clearest gravitational wave signal from a binary black hole merger to date, and it gives researchers an opportunity to test ...
General Physics
Jan 29, 2026
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