Massive Stellar Triples Leading to Sequential Binary Black-Hole Mergers
The merger of two black holes in a binary system emits energy that can be detected on Earth by gravitational-wave observatories. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration…
OzGrav
Using 100-Million-Year-Old Fossils and Gravitational-Wave Science to Predict Earth’s Future Climate
A group of international scientists, including an Australian astrophysicist, has used know-how from gravitational-wave astronomy (used to find black holes in space) to study ancient…
Massive Overcontact Binary Stars May Explain Massive Black Hole Merger Puzzle
In 2015, the first direct observation of gravitational waves was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) (Abbott et al. 2016). The detected…
Tracing Ripples in the Fabric of Spacetime to Reveal the Origins of Merging Black Holes
Over the past five years, astronomy has been revolutionized as scientists have used ripples in the fabric of spacetime, called gravitational waves, to reveal the…
Gravitational Wave Researchers’ Innovative Method to Analyze the Densest Star Systems in the Universe
In a recently published study, a team of researchers led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash suggests an…
Characterization of Systematic Error in Advanced LIGO Calibration
The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO) detectors and the Virgo detector have directly observed transient gravitational waves (GWs) from compact binary coalescences. After…
Continuous Electromagnetic and Gravitational Radiation From Triaxially-Deformed, Freely-Precessing Neutron Stars
Rapidly rotating, asymmetric neutron stars that undergo free precession can produce both modulated pulse signals and continuous gravitational radiation with characteristic features, and thus are…
Lonely Origin of Cassiopeia A Revealed: One of the Most Famous Supernova Remnants
Massive stars end their lives with energetic explosions known as supernova explosions. ‘Stripped-envelope supernovae’ show weak or no traces of hydrogen in its ejecta, meaning…
Ripples in the Fabric of Space and Time Offer New Clues to the Shape of Black Holes
A team of gravitational-wave scientists led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) reveal that when two black holes collide and…
Innovative New Method Developed to Detect Colliding Supermassive Black Holes
A new study has developed an innovative method to detect colliding supermassive black holes in our Universe. The study has just been published in the Astrophysical…
Stellar Evolution Code “METISSE” Offers New Insights Into the Lives of Massive Stars
Massive stars are larger than about 10 times the mass of the Sun and are born far less often than their low mass counterparts. However,…
Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO) – Building a $100M Black Hole Detector
A new study makes a compelling case for the development of “NEMO”—a new observatory in Australia that could deliver on some of the most exciting…
Elusive Continuous Gravitational Waves — Long-Lasting Ripples in Space-Time — In X-ray Star Systems
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that come in many forms. So far, short-duration gravitational wave signals have been observed from colliding black holes and…
Earth-Shaking Science at Cryogenic Temperatures: Next Generation Vibration Sensors
A cutting-edge vibration sensor may improve the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors to find the tiniest cosmic waves from the background hum of Earth’s motion….
Mysterious Spinning Neutron Star Detected in the Milky Way With Extraordinary Properties
On March 12th, 2020, a space telescope called Swift, detected a burst of radiation from half-way across the Milky Way. Within a week, the newly…
“Pre-supernova” Neutrinos: What Happens Before a Star Explodes and Dies?
A recent study on ‘pre-supernova’ neutrinos—tiny cosmic particles that are extremely hard to detect—has brought scientists one step closer to understanding what happens to stars…
New Research on Optomechanical Technology That Can Enhance Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Gravitational wave detectors are extremely complex instruments of precision measurement. They use interference as the physical mechanism to measure passing gravitational waves (GWs)—ripples in space-time—from…
Dancing Stars and Black Holes in a Cosmic Cloud of Gas: Investigating the “Common Envelope Phase”
Most massive stars are born in binaries (and sometimes triples, quadruples, and so on—being single isn’t common for such rock stars!) As stars age, they…