Astronomers get new tools for gravitational-wave detection The
multiple millisecond pulsars discovered with the help of NASA's
Fermi Space Telescope and ground-based radio telescopes also can
yield new information about other effects of general relativity.
January 5, 2010 Provided by NRAO, Socorro, New Mexico January 5,
2010 Radio searches netted 17 new millisecond pulsars by
examining the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's list of
unidentified sources. Colored circles indicate the positions of
the new pulsars on the Fermi 1-year all-sky map Photo by
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration Teamwork between gamma-ray and
radio astronomers has produced a breakthrough in finding natural
cosmic tools needed to make the first direct detections of the
long-elusive gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein
nearly a century ago. An orbiting gamma-ray telescope has
pointed radio astronomers to specific locations in the sky where
they can discover new millisecond pulsars. Millisecond pulsars —
rapidly spinning, superden