The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US and the Virago Gravitational Wave Observatory in Italy captured the gravitational waves from the death spiral and merger of a neutron star with a black hole, not once but twice. The findings were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Scientists have discovered for the first time black holes that eat neutron stars, "like Pac-Man", in a discovery that documents the collision between the two most extreme and mysterious objects in the universe.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US and the Virago Gravitational Wave Observatory in Italy captured the gravitational waves from the death spiral and merger of a neutron star with a black hole, not once but twice. The findings were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The researchers say their observations will help unravel some of the universe's most complex mysteries, including the building blocks of matter and the workings of space and time.
More than a thousand scientists participated in the world-first discoveries, with many of the leaders from Australia, including the Australian National University (ANU).
Research Professor Susan Scott of ANU's School of Physics Research in the Center for Gravitational Astrophysics, a co-author of the study, said the events occurred about a billion years ago but were so massive that we can still detect their gravitational waves today.
"These collisions shook the universe to its core and we detected the ripples they sent moving powerfully throughout the cosmos," she said.
"Any collision like this is not just a meeting between two massive and dense objects. It's actually like Pac-Man, when a black star swallows its companion neutron star whole."
"These are amazing events and we've been waiting a very long time to witness them. So it's great to finally capture them."
One event involved a black hole with a mass nine times that of our sun and a neutron star with twice the mass of our sun. The other event involved a black hole with a mass about six times that of our Sun and a neutron star with a mass 1.5 times that of our Sun.
Professor Scott, who is also principal investigator at the ARC Center of Excellence for the Detection of Gravitational Waves (OzGrav), said the international team had previously captured many events involving two colliding black holes as well as two colliding neutron stars.
"We have now completed the last part of the suite with the first confirmed observations of gravitational waves from the collision of a black star and a neutron star," she said.
Dr Johannes Eichholz, from ANU's Center for Gravitational Astrophysics and co-researcher at OzGrav, said the two discoveries were originally made on 5 and 15 January 2020.
"Discoveries of this kind are very rare," he said.
"We discovered these events not once but twice within ten days."
"Like the ripples from these two events, felt a billion years later, these findings will have a major impact on our understanding of the universe for many years to come."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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It's not exactly miracles. Waves do "collide" with each other, but simply struggle with each other. Of course, physically there is nothing that will collide because these are gravitational waves, but they do create friction, after which they continue on their way, as if the wave did not exist
curious
Waves do not collide - they pass through each other. This is a very fundamental difference between particles and waves.
What you mean - of course - is 'attach' which means puzzle in Arabic. And not a 'shack'.
Am I allowed to comment?: Tazerif is the new name that used to be called Sherupa. An alternative to the foreign word attachment - a file attached to an e-mail. Someone found out that there is a settlement called Zoropa in the northern Sharon, also Zoropa is an ancient word that means distilled and below is Zerof Zerofa Zerofim Zorofot and so on...
It was not detailed enough for me
But apparently to each and their level of interest
Do you think gravitational waves collide with each other?
There are enough light websites. There are many who want to deepen.
To my father Blizovsky
In order for the articles on your website to be read, it is useful to summarize them and present only, and only the main point as it appears in the title, and if you want, refer to additional material, but there is no need to contain a hidden advertisement in the article, or an article that begins, but does not end (as long as the length of the exile)