Gravitational Wave Detected from Black Hole-Binary Merger

[JMCx4]

From: The Virgo-LIGO Collaboration

GW190814 - the merger of a 23-solar-mass black-hole and an enigmatic lighter object
Posted: 23/06/2020

Another unprecedented discovery has just been unveiled by LIGO-Virgo scientists. Data from the third observation period (O3) of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors reveal that, at 21:10 (UTC) on the 14th of August, 2019, the three instruments in the network detected a gravitational-wave signal, called GW190814. The signal originated from the merger of an enigmatic couple: a binary system composed of a black hole, 23 times heavier than our sun, and a much lighter object, about 2.6 times the mass of the Sun. The merger resulted in a final black hole about 25 times the mass of the sun.

It is this lighter object that makes GW190814 so special. It may just be either the lightest black hole or the heaviest neutron star ever discovered in a binary system. Another peculiar feature of GW190814 is the mass ratio of the objects in the binary system. The factor 9 ratio is even more extreme than was the case with the first detected merger of a binary with unequal masses, GW190412. ...


Read more & See animation at: Virgo Website

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