North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has received $14.5 million over a five-year period from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to operate a Physics Frontiers Center (PFC).

The funding has been granted to create and operate a Physics Frontiers Center, which will radio time observations of pulsars with the Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory in order to detect and study low-frequency gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are elusive ripples in the fabric of space-time, which arise from extremely energetic and large-scale cosmic events.

Xavier Siemens, physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been named the director of the center and Maura McLaughlin, Eberly distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at West Virginia University will serve as co-director.

Gravitational waves may be detected in the small but perceptible fluctuations, a few tens of nanoseconds over five or more years. They cause in the measured arrival times at Earth of radio pulses from these millisecond pulsars.

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 consisted of 17 members in the United States and Canada. Now, it has grown to 55 scientists and students at 15 institutions.

The NANOGrav PFC will provide funding for 23 senior personnel, 6 postdoctoral researchers, 10 graduate students, and 25 undergraduate students distributed across 11 institutions. The center will ensure that researchers have the necessary resources to explore one of the most exciting frontiers in all of physics and astronomy.