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Old 11-08-2021, 01:39 PM
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Arrow As 11-08-21 - Latest news of gravitational wave catalogue details 35 new detections

As 11-08-21 - Latest news of gravitational wave catalogue details 35 new detections
By: ROOM by Kerry Hebden - Space Journal of Ascardia - Space Tech Expo - Europe
Re: https://room.eu.com/news/latest-grav...new-detections

Photo link: https://room.eu.com/images/contents/...kHoleImage.jpg
Artist’s conception of two black holes before merging together, events that can release powerful gravitational waves which can be detected with LIGO and Virgo. Image: Josh Valenzuela, University of New Mexico.

Astronomers using the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA facilities to detect and study gravitational waves have found a whopping 35 new events in their last observing round. This flood of detections bumps up the total number of known events to 90 since gravitational-wave observations first began.

Gravitational waves, a phenomena predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago, are distortions or ripples in spacetime, caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe, such as the collision and merger of black holes.

They were first discovered in September 2015 using the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Louisiana and Washington state in the US, and announced publicly in February 2017.

The scientific breakthrough was so significant, it later earned Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne a share of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017, “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves."

Since then, both LIGO and the Advanced Virgo detector in Italy, have been busy racking up detection after detection, including signals received from the first black hole-neutron star merger and the first binary neutron star merger; an event which also produced the birth of the lowest mass black hole ever found.

As of 7 November, when the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration released the results of events observed between November 2019 and March 2020, that total number of detections now stands at 90.

“The many new detections in the third observing run were made possible due to some improvements to the already impressively sensitive detectors, such as the implementation of the quantum technology of squeezed light and the use of higher laser power,” says Katherine Dooley, a reader at Cardiff University.

Like the detections before them, this latest batch of events is just as diverse. Around 32 of the events were most likely to be caused by black hole mergers – two black holes spiralling around each other that finally join together.

Several of the black holes formed from these mergers exceed 100 times the mass of our Sun, and are classed as intermediate-mass black holes.

This type of black hole has long been theorized by astrophysicists, but has so far been hard to spot. Thanks to these observations, this new class of black holes is turning out to more common in the Universe than previously thought.

Two of the 35 events spotted were likely to be neutron stars and black holes merging – a much rarer event, and one that was only discovered in the most recent observing run of LIGO and Virgo.

Of these rare neutron star and black hole mergers, one event seems to show a massive black hole (about 33 times the mass of our Sun) with a very low-mass neutron star (about 1.17 times the mass of our Sun); one of the lowest-mass neutron stars ever detected.

The final gravitational wave event is still something of a mystery, say the collaboration, as they cannot be sure what one half of the merger is.

With a mass around 2.8 times the mass of our Sun, it’s either a very light black hole or a very heavy neutron star. This poses something of a conundrum because scientists had expected that the most massive a neutron star could be before collapsing to form a black hole is around 2.5 times the mass of our Sun.

In addition, no black holes have been discovered with electromagnetic observations with masses below about 5 solar masses.

So which is it? The collaboration are still not sure, but it could mean that theories behind black hole formation from stellar collapse may need to be revised.

“Only now are we starting to appreciate the wonderful diversity of black holes and neutron stars. Our latest results prove that they come in many sizes and combinations, we have solved some long-standing mysteries, but uncovered some new puzzles too. Using these observations, we are closer to unlocking the mysteries of how stars, the building blocks of our Universe, evolve,” says Christopher Berry, a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow.

With observing run number three now complete, the LIGO and Virgo observatories are currently undergoing improvement works before the upcoming fourth observing run, expected to begin next summer.

Japan are also getting in on the action and its Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector (KAGRA) observatory will also join the next full observing run.

Located deep under a mountain, KAGRA completed a successful first observing run in 2020, but has yet to join LIGO and Virgo in making joint observations.
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Personal note: You just never know what's going to pop up in the news each day.
Science is amazing - and this was predicted by Albert Einstein.
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Old 11-08-2021, 01:44 PM
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Arrow Follow up: Scientists Detect “Tsunami” of Gravitational Waves

(Another post on this subject)
Scientists Detect “Tsunami” of Gravitational Waves
By: Futurism News

Photo link: https://futurism.com/_next/image?url...pg&w=1080&q=75

Do you know what happens when two black holes collide?

When two black holes — or one black hole and a neutron star — get sucked in to each other, they generate one of the most violent and energetic events in the known universe.

These events called gravitational waves were famously first predicted by Albert Einstein, who suggested that the energy released would be so large they could disrupt the space-time continuum itself.

Since detecting the very first one back in 2015, scientists have been detecting more and more, thanks to an international team of researchers and equipment that’s creating a paradigm in our quest to understand how stars live and die in our universe.

In the latest finding, according to a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper spotted by ScienceAlert, the team spotted a whopping 35 of these events between November 2019 and March 2020.

Using the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) — the world’s biggest gravitational wave observatory, which is actually made up of two observatories over 1,800 miles apart — and Virgo, a smaller instrument located in Italy, the team was able to track down a shocking number of them.

“These discoveries represent a tenfold increase in the number of gravitational waves detected by LIGO and Virgo since they started observing,” said astronomy professor Susan Scott from the Australian National University and co-author of the paper, in a statement.

“We’ve detected 35 events,” she added. “That’s massive! In contrast, we made three detections in our first observing run, which lasted four months in 2015-16.”

Most, 32 to be exact, are suspected to be the result of black holes merging, forming a massive new hole. These newly created supermassive black holes can balloon into gigantic structures clocking in at over 100 times the mass of the Sun.

Some, however, are likely the result of a neutron star, the dead remains of a star, colliding with a black hole.

“The excellent sensitivities of the detectors have allowed for the observation of so many more exciting gravitational wave events, including the first ever confident neutron star-black hole binary detection,” said Madeline Wade, assistant professor at Kenyon College, co-author, in a separate statement.

While we’ve confirmed their existence, neutron stars remain mysterious. We still don’t quite know how small or big they can get, precisely how they’re formed, or exactly what they’re actually made of.

Still, the new discoveries mark a profound moment for astronomers everywhere.

“This really is a new era for gravitational wave detections and the growing population of discoveries is revealing so much information about the life and death of stars throughout the Universe,” Scott added.

Also: Astronomers Detect a ‘Tsunami’ of Gravitational Waves. Here’s Where They’re Coming From - Re: https://www.sciencealert.com/astrono...tational-waves

One more site: By: INVERSE News: https://www.inverse.com/science/larg...al-wave-events
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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