To operate a Physics Frontier Center or PFC North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) over the five years has received $14.5 million.

Funding is used to create and operate PFC which will radio time observations of pulsars with the Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope in order to detect and study low frequency gravitational waves.

Gravitaionla waves arise from energetic and large scale cosmic events.

These waves are ripples in the space time.

They are detected in the small but perceptible fluctuations, a few tens of nanoseconds over five or more years.

Fred King, WVU vice-president for research, said, “PFCs are awarded to teams working to address the most significant questions regarding the fundamental nature of our universe and the underlying physics. The universities in this collaboration join a very select group of institutions who work at the forefront of physics and astronomy”.

NANOGrav was founded in 2007 and consists of 17 members in Canada and United States.

It has now grown to 55 scientists and students at 15 institutions.