Eberly News

Over 100 years ago, Einstein predicted gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space and time caused by energetic processes in the universe. Just last year, two professors at West Virginia University helped discover gravitational waves and verify Einstein’s theory.

You can’t see it, but billions of light years away cosmic flash bulbs are popping and no one knows why.

Hydrogen. Atomic number 1. It is the simplest and lightest element on the periodic table, but don’t be fooled by its humble appearance. With just a single proton and a single electron it is the most abundant element in the universe and has fueled star formation for the past 13 billion years.

No, it isn’t about aliens. While the title of the upcoming documentary “little green men” suggests an extra-terrestrial theme, it actually features life in our own backyard.

Briefly, describe your career path.

For the second time in history, a team of astrophysicists – including Sean McWilliams at West Virginia University, has observed gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime.

A global team of astronomers, including one from  West Virginia University, have for the first time detected repeating short-duration bursts of radio waves from an enigmatic source which is likely located well beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. The findings indicate that these “fast radio bursts,” or FRBs, come from an extremely powerful object which occasionally produces multiple bursts in under a minute.