Gravitational waves-Priages in space-time caused by violent cosmic events traveling to the speed of light in all directions, possibly withering like ripples in water. But some events are so destructive and extreme that they create disturbances in space -time more like powerful waves than small ripples, with enough energy to reach our own detectors here on the ground.
Today, the League -collaboration has announced the detection of the most colossal black hole fusion known so far, whose final product seems to be a giant black hole more than 225 times the mass of the sun. Much about this signal, named GW231123, contradicts known models for star development, sending physicists shouting to catch like such a merger was even possible.
Link, or The laser interferometric gravity wave observatorymade history of physics in 2015 by detecting gravitational waves for the first timecapturing the cosmological echoon of two colliding black holes. Since its nobel-winning discovery, the Link -cooperationAn international partnership between League and Virgo and Kagra in Italy and Japan respectively continued their scrupulous surveillance of the galaxy. The collaboration has detected many signals from neutron stars, supernovae, and about 300 black holes.
But GW231123, first observed on November 23, 2023, seems to be an unprecedented animal of merging a black hole. Two huge black holes – 137 and 103 times the mass of the sun – managed to hold it together despite its huge combined mass, turning 400,000 times the speed of the rotation of the earth to form an ever larger black hole. To put its size in perspective, the previous record owner for such a merger, GW190521There are about 140 times the mass of the sun.
Considering the gravitational oticosa nature of black hole environments, with their pushes and pulls, it is noticeable that this merger was stable enough for the resulting gravitational waves to reach a link, which detected the signals for a duration of 0.1 seconds. Such episodes must be “banned” according to standard development models, said Mark Hannam, a link -member and physicist from Cardiff University, in Statement.
“One possibility is that the two black holes in this binary formed with earlier mergers of smaller black holes,” he assumed. “This is the most massive black hole we observed with gravitational waves, and it presents a true challenge to our understanding of the formation of a black hole.”
“The black holes seem to be very quickly rotating – close to the limit allowed by Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” explained Charlie Hoy, a league member and physicist at the University of Portsmouth in England, in the same edition. “This makes it difficult to model and interpret. It is a great case -study to push the development of our theoretical tools.”
Scientists will present their findings on GW231123 next week at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravity (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Major Waves, held together as Gravy3’s Gravy3. Have a clear answer soon.
“Years will pass for the community to fully reveal this complete signal template and all its implications,” added Gregorio Carullo, also a link member and physicist at the University of Birmingham, England. “Despite the most likely explanation remaining merging a black hole, more complex scenes could be the key to deciphering its unexpected functions. Exciting times forward!”
Physicists first conceived gravitational waves as early as the late 19th century, but the idea gained a popular moment thanks to Albert Einstein. As one of the few observational methods that do not need light to “see” cosmic phenomena, gravitational waves do not match their potential to help humanity discover the many mysteries of Black holes,, Ancient starsand even Dark matter. So, actually – exciting times forward!
