News/Events

For the second time in history, a team of astrophysicists – including  Sean McWilliams at  West Virginia University, has observed gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime.

O n the heels of their participation in the historic research that resulted in the detection of gravitational waves, West Virginia Univers ity astrophysicists continue to plow new ground and build upon their work.

WASHINGTON D.C./MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

The National Science Foundation has awarded the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves $14.5 million over a five-year period to create and operate a Physics Frontiers Center aimed at using radio timing observations of pulsars with the Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory to detect and study low-frequency gravitational waves.

West Virginia University will use nearly half of a $20 million National Science Foundation grant to research areas important to the state and nation – a clean water supply and a deeper understanding of our universe – while also preparing the state’s workforce for high-tech jobs and promoting science education among the state’s students.

West Virginia University (WVU) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) together received a nearly $2 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to expand the reach and impact of the highly successful Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) student science education initiative. Approximately $700,000 of the grant will go to the NRAO; WVU will receive approximately $1.3 million.

Students at West Virginia University have looked to the skies and discovered six pulsars.

A team of astronomers, including a  West Virginia University professor, has uncovered the most detailed record ever of a Fast Radio Burst, or FRB, brief yet brilliant eruptions of cosmic radio waves that have baffled astronomers since they were first reported nearly a decade ago. The results of their research are published in the journal Nature.

Mysterious radio wave flashes from far outside the galaxy are proving tough for astronomers to explain. Is it pulsars? A spy satellite? Or an alien message?