North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
Gravitational Waves in the News
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NANOGrav Science FeaturesNew Heavyweight Champion Neutron StarThere is a limit to how massive a neutron star can be. That limit is set by the properties of matter at densities far in excess of what can be created or explored in terrestrial laboratories. By measuring neutron star masses astronomer's are thus able to explore properties of matter that high energy physicists, working with the most sophisticated and expensive accelerators that can be built, cannot hope to probe. By measuring such a high-mass neutron star, Demorest and Ransom's observations have ruled-out many theoretical previously viable theoretical models for high-density nuclear matter, helping us to home-in on Nature's Truth. To learn more, see National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Nature Figure caption: The Shapiro Time Delay in the J1614-2230 binary system. As the companion white dwarf star passes in front of the pulsar at orbital phase 0.25, the radio pulses experience an excess delay of about 40 us. The large signal strength is mainly due to the orbital inclination, which is less than 1 degree away from edge-on as viewed from Earth. The amplitude and shape of this curve are determined by both the orbital inclincation and white dwarf mass. Knowing these, we can then infer the pulsar's mass as well from orbital dynamics |
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Our MissionThe NANOGrav Collaboration's goal is to observe gravitational waves from the near and distant universe and, with those observations, inaugurate the field of gravitational wave astronomy. Our focus is on gravitational waves ranging from nanohertz to microhertz frequencies, which we will detect using a galactic scale gravitational wave detector, constructed from a collection of millisecond pulsars timed with precision of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds. PIRE ProgramNANOGrav is proud to host a National Science Foundation Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) program. Our PIRE program helps fund our international research activities and provides international education opportunities for our students and postdocs. To find out more about our PIRE program visit our dedicated PIRE Web Site>> International PartnershipsPulsar timing for gravitational wave detection is an international enterprise. NANOGrav welcomes international partners. To learn more about our international engagement follow the jump>>
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HEAR ABOUT NANOGRAV
- December 2, 2011: Maura McLaughlin will speak on "An International Pulsar Timing Array for Gravitational Wave Detection" at McGill University. - November 30, 2011: Scott Ransom will speak on "Detecting Gravitational Waves (and doing other cool physics) with Millisecond Pulsars" at The University of Florida Astronomy Department. - November 5, 2011: Fredrick Jenet will speak on "Unique Aspects of Gravitational Wave Detection Using Radio Pulsar Timing Techniques" at the Midwest Relativity Meeting, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. - November 2, 2011: Scott Ransom will speak on "Detecting Gravitational Waves (and doing other cool physics) with Millisecond Pulsars" at The Space Telescope Science Institute - October 13, 2011: Fredrick Jenet will speak on "Pulsar Timing As A Probe of Exotic Physics: Gravitational Waves and Faster-Than-Light Pulse Propagation" at the Cornell University Astronomy and Space Science Colloquium. - June 6 - 17, 2011: IPTA 2011 Meeting and Student Workshop. For additional Information please see: http://workshop.nanograv-pire.wvu.edu - May 22, 2011: Paul Demorest and Scott Ransom will speak at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts |
