While Albert Einstein proposed the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, it would be nearly 70 years before it seemed possible to prove the theory correct.

As part of his theory of relativity, Einstein proposed that massive accelerating objects that orbit each other (such as neutron stars or black holes) create waves or ripples in space.

It wasn’t until 1974 before astronomers identified a binary pulsar that could be used to test the theory through indirect observation— science that saw the two lead researchers awarded a Nobel Prize.

But decades later, studying gravitational waves remained a challenge, needing an array of gravitational wave directors to triangulate the source and requiring significant computational power to sort the signal from the noise.

There was additionally a challenge in reviewing delayed data. Most gravitational wave data was recorded first and then analysed later, which made it difficult to demonstrate whether a possible signal was a real event.

The launch of Magnus allowed researchers from the University of Western Australia and International Gravitation Research Centre to collate data from around the world for high-speed analysis in near real-time.

Coupled with a new approach to detection and filtering, researchers would be able to recognise a single waveform out of tens of thousands of different possible waveforms arriving at the detectors.

The work has had far reaching implications.

By optimising the detection method for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, as well as its European counterpart, Virgo, the team contributed to the international effort which allowed LIGO to detect the first gravitational wave in 2015.

LIGO scientists were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery.