Background Noise of Gravitational Waves

The recent detection of gravitational waves emitted from a pair of merging black holes implies the existence of a large population of similar pairs, which should be generating a background of waves too faint to be detected with present technology. Using this information, researchers now estimate that this background could be roughly 10 times stronger than previously expected and might be found by sensitive instruments in only a few years. The background signal could help astrophysicists better understand how black hole binaries form and also pave the way to detecting the waves emitted by the expanding Universe shortly after the big bang.