The researchers at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory have recently detected a new set of gravitational waves. These waves come from a pair of black holes, which were recently fused into one.
Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves For The Third Time
Several scientists have recently detected for the third time some gravitational waves, which were created by two black holes. These two black holes orbited one another, and slowly spiraled inward until they fused into one, which created a large version with a mass about 49 times larger than the sun. The fusion created waves, which was located about 3 billion light-years away from Earth, crossed the universe at the speed of light, and reached LIGO's systems, Science News reported.
LIGO Observatory head Michael Landry said that the recent discovery is one of the most powerful astronomical events witnessed. After all, the fusion resulted into somewhat like two suns worth of mass energy and radiating gravitational waves across the universe.
LIGO Locations, Details Revealed
LIGO has two detectors, which are located in Hanford and Livingston, Los Angeles, and each has a par of 4 kilometer long arms. These are used to measure the stretching of spacetime caused by gravitational waves. The facilities are tuned to detect these waves that usually stretch and squeeze the arms by a thousandth of the diameter of a proton.
One of the few events that could make enough spacetime gyrations in the universe was the two black hole fusion. It was big enough that it made it easier for the researchers to detect such an event.
Two Black Holes Details
The two black holes that were recently discovered were particularly heavy in mass. Their masses were about 31 and 19 times larger than the Earth's sun. For now, astrophysicists do not fully understand how black holes are formed, but they are saying that these are not so uncommon, The Verge reported.
Check out the Gravitational Waves Explained video below:
