To map the vibration of the universe, astronomers built a detector the size of the galaxy

Using the largest gravitational wave detector ever made, we have confirmed earlier reports that the fabric of the universe is constantly vibrating. The results from our detector – an array of rapidly spinning neutron stars spread across the galaxy – show this “gravitational wave background” may be louder than previously thought. The high-frequency gravitational waves created by collisions between relatively small black holes can be picked up with Earth-based detectors, and they were first observed in 2015. A surprisingly loud signal – and an intriguing ‘hot spot’ To detect the gravitational wave background, we used the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. A map of the gravitational wave background across the sky, including a mysterious ‘hot spot’ in the southern hemisphere.