'It's just really exciting to be able to share it': UW Milwaukee scientists a part of worldwide scientific breakthrough

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- With the help of one hometown university what we know about the universe could quickly change.

Wednesday, June 28, scientists with UW Milwaukee and around the world published data that may point to a better understanding of the galaxy.

"We first saw this years ago. We've been analyzing our data running lots of tests, because we want to be as sure and as precise about what It is we are seeing," said Sarah Vigeland, assistant professor of Physics with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Vigeland is also a member with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration and co-lead of the 15-year gravitational wave background paper.

Vigeland became a part of the international team a few years ago, looking to understand the universe, using pulsars and black holes to find and identify low frequency gravitational waves, a move that has never been done before.

"We've been working on this, we've been kind of keeping this secret, it's just really exciting to be able to share it," said Vigeland.

For the very first time, scientists at UW Milwaukee, along with scientists across the world, observed low frequency gravitational waves rippling through the universe.

"We have been working towards having this first evidence for gravitational waves for a very long time," said Vigeland.

Scientists believe this milestone can open a window into a new galaxy, while providing knowledge which might pre-date our universe.

"With gravitational waves you can go even further back almost to the very beginning so we would be able to see what was really going on, at the very beginning of the universe," said Vigeland.

The researcher went on to say while the recent discovery is exciting there's still work to be done.

"There are other things that we can find too, and finding the unexpected is probably the most exciting thing about doing science."

For a complete list of the published papers, click here.