A team of researchers from Cardiff University are helping scientists uncover numerous black holes within the universe. The researchers are hopeful that their research will assist scientists in discovering gravitational waves, or faint ripples of collisions from black homes millions of years ago, once two detectors in the U.S. are switched on next year.

The researchers are hopeful that the detectors, similar to large microphones, will help find remains from black hole collisions, which cannot be seen.

The Cardiff research team, consisting of  postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and collaborators from universities in the U.S. and Europe, has constructed a theoretical model that is poised to predict all potential gravitational-wave signals that the detectors could find.

Team leader Dr. Mark Hannam from the School of Physics and Astronomy said in a statement, “The rapid spinning of black holes will cause the orbits to wobble, just like the last wobbles of a spinning top before it falls over. These wobbles can make the black holes trace out wild paths around each other, leading to extremely complicated gravitational-wave signals. Our model aims to predict this behaviour and help scientists find the signals in the detector data.”

The researchers hope that the model will works as a ‘spotters’ guide, assisting scientists in finding the right waveforms and unveiling secrets of how black holes collide and orbit into one another.

According to science.nationalgeographic.com, black holes are the cold remnants of former stars, so dense that no matter—not even light—is able to escape their powerful gravitational pull.