引力波. 毫秒脉冲星时钟. 超大质量黑洞. 空间结构中的涟漪.

These sound like issues more likely to be faced by Captains Kirk and Picard aboard the Starship Enterprise than by a professor at 博彩平台网址大全.

但是在6月29日, Assistant Professor of Physics Dustin (“Dusty”) Madison was at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. as data gathered and analyzed for more than 15 years by an international team of scientists—including Madison—was released with accompanying breakthrough results.

欧洲的同行组织, India and Australia released similar work in a major cooperative international scientific effort.

麦迪逊的团队, 它的名字叫nanogravity, 在太空中搜寻引力波, which were first postulated in 1915 by a rather notable scientist—Albert Einstein.

“Discussion about the phenomenon sounds like science fiction when it is really very much science fact,麦迪逊说. “Einstein was the first person to predict their existence. The best way to describe the waves is, simply, as ripples in the fabric of space.”

nanogravity成立于2007年，代表的是 North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves. 它已经发展到170多名成员. Madison has been with the organization since 2012 and is now one of eight elected to the leadership team.

A 被称为LIGO的科学合作 made the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015 for which it received the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics.

“We are the very next group after LIGO to see strong evidence for gravitational waves, but we are studying very different gravitational waves in a much different way,麦迪逊说. “This effort and these results will be a major high point of my career.”

在探索空间的同时保持时间

Madison and his colleagues track gravitational waves by utilizing a pulsar timing array. He says that pulsars are miracles of nature—exotic stars that enable astronomers to do very precise timekeeping throughout the galaxy. 引力波 make these stellar clocks do certain special things.

Currently, the collaboration monitors nearly 70 pulsars each month. Madison said the data was painstakingly collected over the past 15 years with some of the biggest radio telescopes in the world. 大部分的数据收集都发生在 绿岸天文台 在西弗吉尼亚农村. 该组织还使用了 阿雷西博望远镜 在波多黎各，它在12月11日倒塌. 1, 2020.

The group’s findings were published in a special edition of the 天体物理学报.

What is next for The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves? Finding more information about the cause of the waves, Madison said.

“Nature is providing us with such a phenomenal laboratory,麦迪逊说. “是什么产生了这些波浪? 这是一个悬而未决的问题. 我们不确定是什么原因造成的. At the heart of every galaxy is what is called a supermassive black hole. Sometimes you get pairs of them that will orbit each other very closely … that is the most likely candidate for what produces the signal. 时间会证明一切.”

太平洋天文学家令人印象深刻的工作

Madison’s work continues a remarkable streak of important faculty astronomy re搜索 at Pacific.

“We are seeing Pacific faculty involved in some very high-profile projects,麦迪逊说. “Daniel Jontof-Hutter in my department does world-class exoplanet science, which is a very hot field. Elisa Toloba has gathered data from some of the biggest and best telescopes in the world. 和 吉尔勒莫巴罗 is doing important work on the James Webb Telescope, which has been a spectacular addition to the field.”

太平洋学院 Dean Lee Skinner lauds the impressive re搜索 conducted by Pacific faculty astronomers.

“Our faculty are on the leading edge of re搜索 in astronomy,” she said. “This is exciting not only for how they’re advancing our knowledge of the universe, but the opportunities that students at Pacific have to participate in these innovative re搜索 projects as re搜索 assistants, co-presenters at scientific conferences and even co-authors on important publications.”

Even high school students get to learn from these cutting-edge astronomers; 28 students in the Pacific High School Summer Institute enrolled in a course taught by the four astronomy faculty.

“We were able to go into detail with students about the types of re搜索 we are doing now,麦迪逊说. “对于天文学来说，这是一个激动人心的时刻.”