Ripples in Space-Time! Gravitational-Wave Observatory Detects 3rd Black Hole Merger

[Judi Lynn]

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | June 1, 2017 11:43am ET


It's not a fluke: For the third time, scientists have detected ripples in space-time caused when two black holes circle each other at mind-bending speeds and collide.

The LIGO gravitational-wave detector spotted the space-time ripples on Jan. 4, members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration announced today (June 1).

If this news sounds familiar, it's because this is the third black-hole collision that LIGO has detected in less than two years. These three consecutive discoveries signal to astrophysicists that mergers between black holes in this mass range are so common in the universe that LIGO may detect as many as one per day when the observatory begins operating at its full sensitivity, members of the collaboration said during a news teleconference yesterday (May 31). [How to See Space-Time Stretch - LIGO | Video]

"If we'd run for a long time and hadn't seen a third black-hole merger … we would have started scratching our heads and saying, 'Did we just get really lucky that we saw these two rare events?'" David Reitze, LIGO Laboratory executive director and a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, told Space.com. "Now I think we can say safely that that's not the case. I think that's exciting."

More:
http://www.space.com/37049-gravitational-wave-experiment-detects-third-black-hole-merger.html?utm_source=notification

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Truly a disturbance in the force. n/t

[Bob Loblaw]

2. That sounds distinctly

like a target for a budget cut.