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.
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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409
Last year, astronomers were fascinated by a runaway asteroid passing through our solar system from somewhere far beyond. It was moving at around 68 kilometers per second, just over double Earth's speed around the sun.
Astronomy
Jan 28, 2026
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Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder may have solved a pressing mystery about the universe's gravitational wave background.
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2026
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When black holes collide, the impact radiates into space like the sound of a bell in the form of gravitational waves. But after the waves, there comes a second reverberation—a murmur that physicists have theorized but never ...
General Physics
Dec 25, 2025
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