Illustration (IMAGE) Simons Foundation Caption In this artist’s interpretation, a pair of supermassive black holes (top left) emits gravitational waves that ripple through the fabric of space-time. Those gravitational waves compress and stretch the paths of radio waves emitted by pulsars (white). By carefully measuring the radio waves, a team of scientists recently made the first detection of the universe’s gravitational wave background. Credit Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration Usage Restrictions None License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.