Latest news with #gravitationalwaves
CBC
19 hours ago
- Science
- CBC
Manitoba researchers part of team working to unravel mystery of largest black hole merger ever detected
A group of Manitoba researchers were involved behind the scenes of an international effort that this week revealed how two massive black holes careened into one — happily, billions of light years from Earth. University of Manitoba astrophysicist Samar Safi-Harb, the Canada Research Chair in Extreme Astrophysics, and her team are collaborators on the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA program, which on Monday published evidence of what Safi-Harb says is "the most massive binary black hole detected to date." Another surprise from the detection, originally made in November 2023, was the breakneck speed at which each black hole was spinning at the time they crashed together — "close to the maximum possible [speed] allowed by theory," said Safi-Harb, who is also a professor of physics and astronomy at the Winnipeg-based U of M. "So not just they are massive, they're spinning like crazy — 400,000 times the Earth's rotation speed." Her team wasn't directly involved in this detection, but they're part of the community of thousands of researchers globally involved in LIGO — the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which operates detectors in Washington state and Louisiana. The team includes U of M postdoctoral fellow Nathan Steinle, who specializes in gravitational wave astrophysics and modelling the collision of black holes, while postdoc Labani Mallick works on electromagnetic observations of black holes. Safi-Harb's PhD student, Neil Doerksen, is focused on improving the sensitivity of detectors used in gravitational wave detection technology, and PhD student Lucas da Conceição works on detection of neutron star gravitational waves. Studying wild extremes All five research wild extremes — extreme temperatures, extreme gravity, extreme magnetic fields exhibited by astrophysical systems. Those just happen to be associated with the deaths of stars — which Safi-Harb is fascinated by because of what they can tell us about where everything comes from. Stellar explosions lead to the creation of some of the heaviest elements in the universe: the calcium in your bones. That gold engagement ring your grandmother left you. The platinum in the catalytic converter stolen from your buddy's sedan. It all came from a beautiful kaboom in the vacuum of space. The more commonly understood way black holes are born is the collapse when a massive star reaches the end of its life. Its stellar corpse morphs into this mysterious, incredibly dense pack of matter, with gravity so intense not even light can escape. That basically makes black holes invisible to conventional light-based telescopes, which is why traditional studies have homed in on the indirect effects black holes have on their surroundings. X-ray telescopes allow scientists to, for example, infer the presence of a black hole by studying the gravitational effects they exert on nearby stars, or by finding materials like gas and dust that forms in disks around black holes. But when it comes to hunting for black hole collisions, different tools are needed. LIGO is designed to look for gravitational wave signatures first predicted to exist by Albert Einstein over a century ago. Einstein's general theory of relativity postulated that these waves rippling through space-time are produced by the motion of accelerating objects. Big, big ones. "If you throw a rock or a stone into a lake, you observe those ripples," said Safi-Harb. "When you have a black hole, it is so dense that it causes these ripples in space-time." If two black holes orbit one another and get closer and closer, they accelerate, "and that leads to really strong gravitational waves," she said. Einstein's prediction remained rooted in the theoretical realm until a decade ago, when scientists managed to observe gravitational waves for the first time through LIGO. Scientists now know of 300 black hole collisions, said Safi-Harb. The latest, dubbed GW231123, is the most massive yet. Scientists detect gravitational waves for 1st time 9 years ago Einstein theory proven more than 100 years later The original pair of black holes had masses 100 and 140 times greater than our sun, and the end product of the merge is in the range of 225 solar masses. That sounds massive, and it is, but on the spectrum of black holes it may fall somewhere in the middle. There are three classes of black holes, including those in our cosmic backyard, known as stellar mass black holes. They can be in the order of 10 to 60 times the mass of our sun. Then there are the supermassive black holes. They reside at the centres of galaxies and can be millions to billions of times more massive than our sun. Some even have names — the dark heart of our Milky Way galaxy is known as Sagittarius A. And evidence has emerged in recent years of the third class — intermediate mass black holes — that may fall between hundreds to thousands of solar masses, like GW231123 and the parent black holes that made it. The fact the parents, and GW231123, all fall into the in-between-zone is exciting — but also a bit of a head-scratcher. "These masses are believed to be 'forbidden,' or not expected to happen, because standard stellar evolution does not predict such black hole formation," said Safi-Harb. It may be that each of those parent black holes were born from mergers of even smaller black holes, said Safi-Harb. "What this discovery is teaching us is that we know that some smaller black holes can make bigger black holes, and maybe bigger black holes collide to make even bigger black holes, and if these are in dense environments, they can make things like our galaxy," she said.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists measure largest ever collision of two black holes
Two black holes have collided far beyond the distant edge of the Milky Way, creating the biggest merger ever recorded by gravitational wave detectors. The two phenomena, each more than 100 times the mass of the sun, had been circling each other before they violently collided about 10 billion light years from Earth. Scientists at the Ligo Hanford and Livingston Observatories detected ripples in space-time from the collision just before 2pm UK time on 23 November 2023, when the two US-based detectors in Washington and Louisiana twitched at the same time. Alongside their enormous masses, the signal, dubbed GW231123 after its discovery date, also showed the black holes spinning rapidly, according to researchers. 'This is the most massive black hole binary we've observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,' said Professor Mark Hannam, from Cardiff University and a member of the Ligo Scientific Collaboration. An artist's impression of a black hole using data from Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (Nasa/JWST) Gravitational-wave observatories have recorded around 300 black hole mergers. Prior to GW231123, the heaviest merger detected was GW190521, whose combined mass was 140 times that of the sun. The latest merger produced a black hole up to 265 times more massive than the sun. 'The black holes appear to be spinning very rapidly — near the limit allowed by Einstein's theory of general relativity,' said Dr Charlie Hoy from the University of Portsmouth. 'That makes the signal difficult to model and interpret. It's an excellent case study for pushing forward the development of our theoretical tools.' 'It will take years for the community to fully unravel this intricate signal pattern and all its implications,' said Dr Gregorio Carullo, assistant professor at the University of Birmingham. 'Despite the most likely explanation remaining a black hole merger, more complex scenarios could be the key to deciphering its unexpected features. Exciting times ahead!" Facilities like Ligo in the United States, Virgo in Italy, and KAGRA in Japan are engineered to detect the tiniest distortions in spacetime caused by violent cosmic events such as black hole mergers. The fourth observing run began in May 2023, and data through January 2024 are scheduled for release later this summer. 'This event pushes our instrumentation and data-analysis capabilities to the edge of what's currently possible,' says Dr Sophie Bini, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech. 'It's a powerful example of how much we can learn from gravitational-wave astronomy — and how much more there is to uncover.' GW231123 is set to be presented at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, held jointly as the GR-Amaldi meeting in Glasgow, from 14 to 18 July.
CTV News
a day ago
- Science
- CTV News
‘Where do we come from?': U of M researchers help detect record-breaking black hole collision
CTV's Harrison Shin has more on the black hole discovery made by two University of Manitoba researchers. Two University of Manitoba researchers are exploring the cosmos with one philosophical question in mind. Dr. Samar Safi-Harb and postdoctoral fellow Nathan Steinle are part of a team using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a facility capable of detecting gravitational waves. 'Not everything in the universe can be seen with light, and gravitational waves are a new way of looking at the universe. These are ripples in the fabric of space-time,' Safi-Harb said. LIGO recently detected a collision between two black holes — an event that stands out for its scale. 'It's the most massive black hole merger detected by LIGO. And by 'most massive,' I mean each of these black holes is more than 100 times the mass of the sun,' she said. Until now, black holes of this size had not been directly observed. LIGO's detection provides the first direct evidence of their existence, according to Safi-Harb. Steinle said the discovery raises fundamental questions. 'It's so important because we're not sure if there's an upper limit on the mass. Can it keep getting bigger and bigger until we all grow old?' he said. He added that the finding is just the beginning. 'It really gives you great hope. Once future detectors are built — and they'll have at least 10 times better sensitivity — we'll be able to do a lot more,' he said. For Safi-Harb, the discovery brings scientists one step closer to understanding the universe. 'Finding these extreme events — whether through light, gravitational waves or other cosmic messengers — really brings us a bit closer to understanding our cosmic origins,' she said.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Scientists measure largest ever collision of two black holes
Two black holes have collided far beyond the distant edge of the Milky Way, creating the biggest merger ever recorded by gravitational wave detectors. The two phenomena, each more than 100 times the mass of the sun, had been circling each other before they violently collided about 10 billion light years from Earth. Scientists at the Ligo Hanford and Livingston Observatories detected ripples in space-time from the collision just before 2pm UK time on 23 November 2023, when the two US-based detectors in Washington and Louisiana twitched at the same time. Alongside their enormous masses, the signal, dubbed GW231123 after its discovery date, also showed the black holes spinning rapidly, according to researchers. 'This is the most massive black hole binary we've observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,' said Professor Mark Hannam, from Cardiff University and a member of the Ligo Scientific Collaboration. Gravitational-wave observatories have recorded around 300 black hole mergers. Prior to GW231123, the heaviest merger detected was GW190521, whose combined mass was 140 times that of the sun. The latest merger produced a black hole up to 265 times more massive than the sun. 'The black holes appear to be spinning very rapidly — near the limit allowed by Einstein's theory of general relativity,' said Dr Charlie Hoy from the University of Portsmouth. 'That makes the signal difficult to model and interpret. It's an excellent case study for pushing forward the development of our theoretical tools.' 'It will take years for the community to fully unravel this intricate signal pattern and all its implications,' said Dr Gregorio Carullo, assistant professor at the University of Birmingham. 'Despite the most likely explanation remaining a black hole merger, more complex scenarios could be the key to deciphering its unexpected features. Exciting times ahead!" Facilities like Ligo in the United States, Virgo in Italy, and KAGRA in Japan are engineered to detect the tiniest distortions in spacetime caused by violent cosmic events such as black hole mergers. The fourth observing run began in May 2023, and data through January 2024 are scheduled for release later this summer. 'This event pushes our instrumentation and data-analysis capabilities to the edge of what's currently possible,' says Dr Sophie Bini, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech. 'It's a powerful example of how much we can learn from gravitational-wave astronomy — and how much more there is to uncover.' GW231123 is set to be presented at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, held jointly as the GR-Amaldi meeting in Glasgow, from 14 to 18 July.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
WA observatory at risk from Trump cuts helps make stunning black hole discovery
The LIGO Hanford Observatory near the Tri-Cities and its twin in Louisiana detected ripples of time and space passing through Earth from the most massive collision of black holes ever observed, a coalition of the world's four gravitational wave observatories announced Tuesday. The gravitational waves were confirmed by comparing signals from space that were detected by both U.S. LIGO observatories despite lasting only a 10th of a second. 'This is the most massive black hole binary we've observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,' said Mark Hannam of Cardiff University in Wales, who is a member of a coalition of the world's gravitational wave observatories, in a statement. In addition to the large mass of the merging black holes, they also were spinning more rapidly than any previously detected black hole, approaching the limit allowed by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The international coalition, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, described the detection in a fact sheet as an event 'both extraordinary and puzzling to interpret.' It is 'a potent reminder that the cosmos still holds many surprises, and we are only just beginning to uncover them,' it said. The interpretation of the data and the announcement came as the future of at least one of the U.S. LIGO observatories is in jeopardy as deep cuts to science programs are proposed by the Trump administration. Gravitational waves are caused by cataclysmic events in space, such as colliding black holes, merging neutron stars, exploding stars and possibly even the birth of the universe itself, according to CalTech, which is a joint operator and manager of the two LIGO observatories under an agreement with the National Science Foundation. Since the U.S. Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories made scientific history in 2015 with the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in space and time, from a black hole merger, about 300 more black hole mergers have been detected. The U.S. LIGO's have collaborated on discoveries with Italy's Virgo gravitational-wave observatory since 2007 and Japan's KAGRA observatory since 2019. Massive black hole The black hole collision detected on Nov. 23, 2023, in the United States, during an international observing run, produced a final black hole about 225 times the mass of Earth's sun. The two black holes that merged had individual masses of about 100 and 140 times that of the sun. 'It looks like we are seeing mergers of mergers,' which could lead to new information about steller evolution, said Michael Landry, head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory. Current stellar evolution models don't account for black holes so massive, which raises the possibility that what was detected was the merger of black holes, at least one of which had already merged to form a larger black hole, according to Hannam. The black holes could come from an extremely dense astrophysical environment, such as a nuclear star cluster or an active galactic nucleus, where black holes are more likely to collide, according to the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration fact sheet. Now theories of steller evolution suggest that black holes with masses between about 60 and 130 solar masses, such as one of those in the detection announced Tuesday, should be rare or not even exist, according to the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. The initial merger detected in 2015, confirming Einstein's theory of relativity, had a final black hole mass of 62 times that of the sun. And until the one announced Tuesday, the most massive black hole merger detected was 140 times the mass of the sun, the same as the larger of the merging black holes in the new detection. 'This observation once again demonstrates how gravitational waves are uniquely revealing the fundamental and exotic nature of black holes throughout the universe,' said Dave Reitze, the executive director of LIGO at CalTech The high mass and extremely rapid spinning of the black holes that merged push the limits of both gravitational-wave detection technology and current theoretical models. Confirming LIGO detection The two black holes that collided were so incredibly heavy, that the signal they sent was lower in frequency and shorter compared to other detections, Landry said. In order to confirm that the the detection was from gravitational waves from space and not something on Earth, data from two or more sources was needed, in this case the Hanford and the Livingston, La., LIGOs, Landry said. Although just a tenth of a second long, the signal was 20 times louder than the typical detector noise, and a graph of the detections at both LIGOs closely match. They give a particularly clear view of the merger's grand finale when the newly formed black hole radiates energy through gravitational waves, vibrating and finally settling into a stable state, according to the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration fact sheet. Extracting accurate information from the signal to make sure it was not a random blip in the data required the use of models that simulate what a signal would look like for different black hole pairs, accounting for the intricate dynamics of highly spinning black holes, according to the fact sheet. The modeling found that the probability of random noise mimicking the detection was less than once in 10,000 years. 'This gives us extreme confidence in the non-terrestrial origin of the signal, and thus in the reality of this gravitational-wave signal,' according to the fact sheet. The detection was from the fourth observing run of the collaboration and of the four international observatories that began in May 2023. Additional observations from the first half of the run through January 2024 will be published later this summer. Proposed LIGO closure The confirmation of the discovery of the heaviest black hole ever detected comes as the Trump administration's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 calls for closing either the Louisiana or Hanford LIGO. It is part of a 57% cut proposed by the administration for the National Science Foundation. The proposal has been given to Congress, which is working on bills now in the House and the Senate to set budgets for the National Science Foundation and its projects. According to LIGO CalTech, it is rare that a signal is so strong that a claim of detection can be made with just one observatory. Two or more detectors operating in unison are fundamental to LIGO's ability to contribute to the burgeoning field of gravitational wave astronomy, it said. To be able to hunt for and also find the visible light or other electromagnetic radiation associated with certain gravitational wave events using more traditional observatories, three or more gravitational-wave observatories are needed for triangulation to locate the region of the sky that contains the source of the wave, according to LIGO CalTech. To date, just one such source, the first-ever-known neutron star merger, has also been seen by observatories relying on light after a gravitational-wave detection. 'Though LIGO's mission is to detect gravitational waves from some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, the data LIGO collects may also contribute to other areas of physics such as gravitation, relativity, cosmology, astrophysics, particle physics and nuclear physics,' according to LIGO CalTech. Solve the daily Crossword
