Impact

NANOGrav's impact comes through scientific advancement, undergraduate student, graduate student, and postdoctoral training, and outreach to the general public and high-school students.

Pulsars Observed

75

Times of Arrival Observed

677k

Peer-Reviewed Papers Published

366

Peer-Reviewed Citations

22.8k

Scientific Advancement

Since the NANOGrav PFC was formed in 2015, NANOGrav members have published 270 peer-reviewed publications which have garnered 14,800 citations.

Economic Benefit

The National Science Foundation-funded NANOGrav PFC  support the involvement of 26 senior members, six postdocs, 12 graduate students, 25 undergraduate students, and three cyber-infrastructure and administrative staff. Other awards from the National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and private foundations support many more personnel. In addition, we support roughly 10% of the operations of the Green Bank Observatory through the NSF Physics Frontiers Center award and through a grant from the Moore Foundation.

Public Outreach, Engagement, and Education Efforts

NANOGrav believes that truly transformative science needs to reach all people. Our outreach team is committed to spreading the word about pulsar timing arrays and gravitational wave astronomy both within the scientific community and among the public at large. We focus our efforts around five key goals.

  • Inform the public and fellow astronomers about NANOGrav and its goals, progress, and needs.
  • Educate people about pulsars and gravitational wave astronomy.
  • Engage people in an interactive, hands-on conversation about NANOGrav science.
  • Inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers through the cutting edge science that NANOGrav is accomplishing and will continue to accomplish.
  • Train students and young astronomers that are a part of NANOGrav to do meaningful outreach.

Many of NANOGrav's outreach activities, and those of our partners, aim to increase participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, especially among underrepresented groups. We also maintain a vibrant social media presence, produce educational videos and podcasts, and organize special sessions at scientific conferences world-wide.

In addition, we facilitate the operation of the Pulsar Science Collaboratory (PSC), a program offering students Grade 8+ the opportunity to actively contribute to our scientific ventures. To date, PSC students have discovered seven pulsars which have resulted in the publication of peer-reviewed articles in The Astrophysical Journal.