Astrophysicist Jeremy Darling from the University of Colorado Boulder is on a quest to find a new way of measuring the universe’s gravitational wave background—the steady flow of waves that ripple through space, distorting time and the fabric of the universe itself.
In his recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Darling introduces a method that could help unlock mysteries about how gravity works at its most fundamental level.
His research focuses on quasars, which are incredibly bright, supermassive black holes located at the centers of distant galaxies.
By observing how pairs of these quasars move relative to each other, Darling hopes to spot the subtle wiggles caused by gravitational waves.
Although his findings are not yet detailed enough to confirm that gravitational waves are making quasars shift, Darling believes his approach is a promising step forward.
Discovering how gravitational waves behave could not only shed light on the evolution of galaxies but also test fundamental assumptions about gravity.
Darling may soon have a breakthrough in his hands.
In 2026, the Gaia mission, run by the European Space Agency, plans to release five and a half more years of observations of quasars. This new data might be enough to reveal the faint signals of gravitational waves hidden in the vastness of space.
To understand the kind of signals Darling is searching for, imagine Earth as a tiny buoy floating in a vast and stormy ocean. Gravitational waves are like the waves in that ocean, gently rocking the buoy back and forth.
Throughout the universe’s history, supermassive black holes have spiraled around each other, eventually crashing together with immense force.
These collisions are believed to send out powerful ripples—gravitational waves—that spread across the universe, passing through everything in their path, including Earth.
In 2023, a team of scientists from the NANOGrav collaboration successfully measured this cosmic wave pool. They observed how gravitational waves stretched and squeezed space-time by monitoring pulsars, which are like cosmic clocks.
However, these measurements only tracked gravitational waves moving in one direction.
Darling, however, wants to see the full three-dimensional dance of gravitational waves—not just how they move toward and away from Earth, but also how they shift side-to-side and up and down.
To achieve this, he turned to quasars. By carefully studying how these distant objects move in the sky, he aims to detect the gravitational waves’ subtle influence. While he hasn’t found definitive signals yet, Darling remains optimistic.
With Gaia’s upcoming data, he hopes to uncover the wiggling movements of quasars, which would serve as proof that gravitational waves are truly rocking the universe in three dimensions.
Darling believes this method could deepen our understanding of gravitational waves and, ultimately, the nature of the universe itself.
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder.
