Black hole merger detected by Ligo and Virgo
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The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory) scientific collaboration along with the Virgo collaboration have detected a new black hole merger, seeing two black holes merge to form a larger and more powerful black hole.
The LIGO website confirmed that data from the advanced LIGO detectors in Louisiana and Washington confirms, that on the 4 January 2017, two black holes merged. The detected waves saw a back hole of 19.4 solar masses merge with a black hole of 31.2 solar masses, to form a larger black hole 48.7 solar masses. The website advise that -‘ the detected signal was completely consistent with the predictions of general relativity’
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The LIGO press release confirms that this new discovery demonstrates that stellar-mass black holes can be larger than 20 solar masses, which was previously unknown prior to the LIGO research that detects waveforms which are ripples in the fabric of space-time.
“We have further confirmation of the existence of stellar-mass black holes that are larger than 20 solar masses—these are objects we didn’t know existed before LIGO detected them,” says MIT’s David Shoemaker (LIGO 2017)
The New Scientist Magazine have published an article which highlights the importance of such research. The article – Black hole merger rattles the cosmos (New Scientist, 2017) reveals the importance of such studies to identify how binary black holes are formed and if they form separately or individually.
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