Post by lowell on Jun 24, 2020 7:32:39 GMT -6
"The LIGO-Virgo collaboration has reported a very strange gravitational wave signal. Most of these come from mergers between two black holes or two neutron stars, but this signal appears to have come from a black hole swallowing some unknown object, with a mass that sits in a range thought to be empty.
It’s kind of amazing that something has gone from a Nobel Prize-worthy discovery to a seemingly mundane event in just five years, but that’s almost how it feels with gravitational waves. After all, dozens of these signals have now been detected since that very first one in 2015 – but scientists still have plenty to learn from them."
A visualization of the two objects involved in the strange collision
N. Fischer, S. Ossokine, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration
"The LIGO-Virgo collaboration has reported a very strange gravitational wave signal. Most of these come from mergers between two black holes or two neutron stars, but this signal appears to have come from a black hole swallowing some unknown object, with a mass that sits in a range thought to be empty."
It’s kind of amazing that something has gone from a Nobel Prize-worthy discovery to a seemingly mundane event in just five years, but that’s almost how it feels with gravitational waves. After all, dozens of these signals have now been detected since that very first one in 2015 – but scientists still have plenty to learn from them."
A visualization of the two objects involved in the strange collision
N. Fischer, S. Ossokine, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration
"The LIGO-Virgo collaboration has reported a very strange gravitational wave signal. Most of these come from mergers between two black holes or two neutron stars, but this signal appears to have come from a black hole swallowing some unknown object, with a mass that sits in a range thought to be empty."
" If an object is more than five times the mass of the Sun, it was a black hole. Less than about 2.1 solar masses though, and it was most likely a neutron star.
Now, you’ll probably notice there’s a bit of a mass gap in the middle there. It’s kind of a reverse Goldilocks zone, too small to be a black hole but too big to be a neutron star. No astronomical objects have been found to exist within this range. That is, until now.
In August 2019, LIGO and Virgo detected a gravitational wave signal called GW190814. The event took place some 800 million light-years away from Earth, and the two objects that collided were found to have 23 solar masses and 2.6 solar masses."
Now, you’ll probably notice there’s a bit of a mass gap in the middle there. It’s kind of a reverse Goldilocks zone, too small to be a black hole but too big to be a neutron star. No astronomical objects have been found to exist within this range. That is, until now.
In August 2019, LIGO and Virgo detected a gravitational wave signal called GW190814. The event took place some 800 million light-years away from Earth, and the two objects that collided were found to have 23 solar masses and 2.6 solar masses."
"The 23-solar mass object is undoubtedly a black hole – but what it swallowed is unknown, sitting squarely in that mass gap. And with the larger object being nine times more massive than the smaller one, this is the most extreme ratio for any observed gravitational wave event."
newatlas.com/space/black-hole-neutron-star-mass-gap-gravitational-waves/
newatlas.com/space/black-hole-neutron-star-mass-gap-gravitational-waves/