When it comes to explaining the wider cosmos, it seems were missing something.
Claudia de Rham thinks that gravitons, hypothetical particles carrying gravity, have mass.
If shes right, it would change the way we think gravity operates.
Image credits:Princeton University Press
When we think of gravity, we think ofIsaac NewtonandAlbert Einstein.
Newton had assumed that gravity is felt everywhere in the Universe instantaneously and that it travels at infinite speed.
The detection earned the researchers the Nobel Prize inPhysicsin 1993.
The 15-year data showed that the signal is consistent with slowly undulating gravitational waves passing through ourGalaxy.
As these gigantic black holes orbit each other, they produce low-frequency gravitational waves, said Dr. Sarah Vigeland.
This is key evidence for gravitational waves at very low frequencies, said Vanderbilt Universitys Dr. Stephen Taylor.
After years of work, NANOGrav is opening an entirely new window on the gravitational-wave universe, he added.
However, Claudia de Rham believes that the waves could yet reveal the presence of these hypothetical particles.
Its definitely Nobel prize territory, said the physicist.
