Spinning stars could send space-time ripples through the universe, a team of scientists have claimed.
Fast spinning stars, called millisecond pulsars, have been observed creating space-time ripples by scientists at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University in China.
Essentially, this means that stars are time travelling, and this gives experts a real look at how galaxies are formed.
And lead researcher Siyuan Chen has called the breakthrough “exciting”.
He said, in a statement this week: "This is a very exciting signal!
“Although we do not have definitive evidence yet, we may be beginning to detect a background of gravitational waves.”
Professor Alberto Vecchio, Director of the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Birmingham said: “The detection of gravitational waves from a population of massive black hole binaries or from another cosmic source will give us unprecedented insights into how galaxy form and grow, or cosmological processes taking place in the infant universe.
“A major international effort is needed to reach this goal, and the next few years could bring us a golden age for these explorations of the universe.”
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The waves were first discovered in 2015, and backed up Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, which claims that fabric of space-time can “undulate” when massive objects, like neutron stars and black holes, crash into one another.
This, he said, triggered ripples that are felt across vast distances.
Dr Maura McLaughlin, who was part of the team working on the project, said: “If the signal we are currently seeing is the first hint of a gravitational wave background, then based on our simulations, it is possible we will have more definite measurements of the spatial correlations necessary to conclusively identify the origin of the common signal in the near future.”
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