LIGO detects its third gravitational wave
LIGO scientists today revealed that the detector had spotted its third gravitational wave in January.
Researchers estimate that the bodies in the latest collision were slightly lighter than those in the first event: one had the mass of 31 Suns and the other 19. (The black holes in the second discovery were even more lightweight, at 14 and 8 solar masses.) But the latest merger is the most distant detected so far. The gravitational waves it produced took somewhere between 1.6 billion and 4.3 billion years to reach Earth — most probably around 2.8 billion years.
This new field of astronomy should get even more interesting in the next year or two, as new detectors come on line in Italy and Japan.
LIGO scientists today revealed that the detector had spotted its third gravitational wave in January.
Researchers estimate that the bodies in the latest collision were slightly lighter than those in the first event: one had the mass of 31 Suns and the other 19. (The black holes in the second discovery were even more lightweight, at 14 and 8 solar masses.) But the latest merger is the most distant detected so far. The gravitational waves it produced took somewhere between 1.6 billion and 4.3 billion years to reach Earth — most probably around 2.8 billion years.
This new field of astronomy should get even more interesting in the next year or two, as new detectors come on line in Italy and Japan.