Tag: LIGO
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Squashed Orbits Reveal Clues About Mysterious Black Hole Collision
New Clues About How Binary Black Holes Form In a landmark study, researchers are shedding light on the origins of a dramatic black hole merger detected by LIGO and Virgo, one of the few observations showing an unexpectedly squashed, or eccentric, orbital path just before the collision. The event, named GW200208_222617, offers a rare glimpse…
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Squashed Orbits Reveal Likely Origins of Black Hole Collision
Unveiling a Rare Cosmic Collision A cataclysmic collision between two black holes has offered astronomers a rare glimpse into how such binaries form. Detected as GW200208_222617, the event exhibited detectable orbital eccentricity—an oval-shaped path that is less common by the time black holes merge. This finding adds a crucial clue to the long-standing question of…
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New Optical Cavity Detectors Open the Milli-Hz Gravitational-Wave Frontier
A New Path to the Mid-Band Gravitational-Wave Frontier For decades, gravitational waves have revealed themselves across a broad spectrum—from the high frequencies detected by LIGO and Virgo on Earth to the ultra-low frequencies explored by pulsar timing arrays. Yet a crucial gap remained in the middle: the milli-Hertz band, roughly from 10^-5 to 1 Hz,…
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New Approach to Gravitational Wave Detection Opens the Milli-Hz Frontier
A New Frontier in Gravitational Wave Detection Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Sussex have unveiled a promising new approach to detecting gravitational waves in the milli-Hertz range. This mid-band, or milli-Hz, frequency region has long eluded observation by existing instruments, leaving a gap between high-frequency ground-based detectors and ultra-low-frequency pulsar timing arrays. The…
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Milli-Hertz Frontier: Compact Detectors Find Gravitational Wave ‘Blind Spot’
A new compact approach to a long-standing gap in gravitational wave astronomy Two UK universities have unveiled a ground-based detector concept designed to listen to gravitational waves in the elusive milli-Hertz range, a band long considered inaccessible from Earth. By combining optical resonator technology with mature atomic clock techniques, researchers at the Universities of Birmingham…
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Milli-Hertz frontier: Compact detectors unlock gravitational wave ‘mid-band’
The new mid-band detector idea A collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham and Sussex has unveiled a compact, ground-based detector concept that targets the elusive milli-Hertz gravitational wave band. By combining advanced optical cavity technology with atomic clock references, the project aims to fill the long-standing gap in the gravitational wave spectrum between terrestrial interferometers…
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The First Sound of a Newborn Black Hole: A Gravitational Wave Breakthrough
Introduction to Gravitational Waves Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime caused by the acceleration of massive objects, such as colliding black holes or neutron stars. These waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, but it was not until 2015 that we detected them for the first time. Since then, they have opened a…
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Gravitational-Wave Detection Confirms Hawking’s Theorem
Introduction to Gravitational Waves Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime, first predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago. Their existence was confirmed in 2015 by the LIGO collaboration, marking a monumental milestone in astrophysics. This discovery not only validated Einstein’s theories but also opened up a new way of observing and understanding the universe.…
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Astronomers Achieve Best Black Hole Merger Observation
Understanding Black Hole Mergers The merger of two black holes is a notoriously elusive cosmic event, yet it offers profound insights into the fundamental workings of our universe. Each merger serves as a unique laboratory for testing our understanding of gravity, space, and time. In recent months, researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in this…
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The Confirmation of Gravitational Waves Through Black Hole Mergers
Understanding Gravitational Waves Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime caused by some of the universe’s most massive events. When two black holes orbit each other and eventually merge, they emit gravitational waves that propagate at the speed of light, causing minute changes in the fabric of spacetime. This phenomenon, predicted by Albert Einstein in his…