#77 - Dr. Maura McLaughlin - Detecting the Ripples from Merging Supermassive Black Holes

Rate the show 5 stars wherever you listen or throw your phone into the interstate. Your choice... Episode 77 features Dr. Maura McLaughlin - an expert on pulsars and gravitational wave astronomy. We discuss gravitational waves, how we have detected them in the past, how we are trying to use pulsars to detect them within NANOGrav, the intricacies of neutron stars, supermassive black holes and much more! Maura is an Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and West Virginia University (WVU) spending much of her time studying pulsars and the, as yet unachieved, direct detection of gravitational waves. Much of her work is done as a member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav).  Support the show by leaving a rating or a review and subscribing to receive future content. Consider becoming a Patron by subscribing at https://www.patreon.com/thestateoftheuniverse or supporting the show via a one time donation at https://www.paypal.me/drachler. For more episodes or information about The State of The Universe join the mailing list at thestateoftheuniverse.com or follow the show on social media. The music in this episode belongs to https://freebeats.io/.