Tag

Gravitational Waves

All articles tagged with #gravitational waves

science-and-technology3 days ago•10 min saved

NASA Frames ESA’s LISA Mission as a 'Good Deal' Amid Partnership Tensions

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is redefining international space partnerships as 'good deals' requiring tangible contributions, a shift that has strained relations with the European Space Agency (ESA) over lunar programs. However, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission remains a key exception. NASA views its role in LISA as highly cost-effective, providing roughly one-third of the funding for 100% of the science data. While the Trump administration proposed canceling NASA’s participation, Congress restored funding for fiscal year 2026, signaling continued support. ESA is leading the mission, which aims to detect low-frequency gravitational waves using three spacecraft in a triangular formation, with a launch scheduled for around 2035.

via Ars Technica|

#esa #gravitational-waves #international-cooperation

science11 days ago•7 min saved

Theoretical Physicists Reveal How Black Holes May Shed Their 'Hair' to Form Boson Stars

A new study by researchers at the University of Aveiro suggests that black holes surrounded by scalar fields, or 'hair,' can undergo a process called fission. In this scenario, the black hole separates from its surrounding matter, leaving behind a stable boson star. This theoretical decay mode challenges previous assumptions about the stability of such systems and could produce detectable gravitational wave signals.

via ScienceAlert|

#black-holes #boson-stars #gravitational-waves

science1 month ago•3 min saved

Gravitational Lensing May Turn GW231123 into an Ordinary Black-Hole Merger

A new study suggests GW231123's 'impossible' mass may be due to gravitational lensing, which would mask a final black hole of about 140 solar masses as about 225 solar masses. If true, the event would fit existing black-hole formation models and avoid the pair-instability mass gap, but the lensing explanation is not yet proven and remains a caveat rather than a confirmed cause. Gravitational-wave lensing could become a valuable tool for future discoveries.

via Gizmodo|

#astrophysics #black-holes #gravitational-lensing

space1 month ago•135 min saved

Cosmic Lens Could Rewrite a Massive Black-Hole Merger

A Space.com report notes researchers modeling the GW231123 gravitational-wave event suggest the unusually high inferred masses of the merging black holes could be an illusion caused by gravitational lensing. If a foreground object (roughly 190–850 solar masses) or a globular cluster lenses the signal, the true masses could be around 140 and 100 solar masses, avoiding the need for extreme spins. The lens’s exact nature remains unknown, and confirming lensing in future events will require more sensitive detectors; the team published their findings in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

via Space|

#black-holes #gravitational-lensing #gravitational-waves

science1 month ago•12 min saved

Four-Decade Bet Pays Off: LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves from Black-Hole Merger

After a 1972 proposal, physicists spent 43 years refining ultra-sensitive laser interferometers before LIGO detected gravitational waves from a black-hole merger 1.3 billion light-years away in 2015, a milestone that earned a Nobel Prize and reshaped our understanding of the universe.

via Space Daily|

#black-holes #gravitational-waves #interferometer

science1 month ago•14 min saved

Ancient Dark Stars Could Leave Gravitational-Wave Footprints Across the Cosmos

New research explores whether remnants of hypothetical supermassive Dark Stars—early stars powered by dark matter—could seed black holes that grow, merge, and contribute to the low-frequency gravitational-wave background detected by pulsar timing arrays. The study suggests Dark-Star–derived seeds might dominate the signal compared with direct-collapse black holes, offering an indirect way to probe the universe’s dawn. However, Dark Stars remain theoretical, and current measurements only constrain how common such objects could have been; future data will help confirm or refute this scenario.

via The Times of India|

#dark-matter #dark-stars #gravitational-waves

space-and-astronomy1 month ago•55 min saved

Triple black holes in a distant galaxy reveal rapid early-universe growth

Astronomers using the JWST have identified three active black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214, about 12.5 billion light-years away. Two lie at the core (80 million and 600,000 solar masses) and are 620 light-years apart, while a third, ~2 million solar masses, sits ~5,500 light-years away and may merge with the pair or escape. The system supports rapid black-hole growth in the early universe via mergers and foreshadows future low-frequency gravitational-wave detections by space-based observatories like LISA.

via Yahoo|

#black-holes #galaxy-mergers #gravitational-waves

space1 month ago•161 min saved

Cosmic trio of supermassive black holes spotted in a distant galaxy

Using JWST/NIRSpec, astronomers found three active supermassive black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214—a central 80‑million-solar-mass hole, a 600,000-solar-mass companion, and a ~2‑million-solar-mass third hole—suggesting rapid early‑universe black‑hole growth via mergers; the third hole’s fate is uncertain, but such systems could emit long‑wavelength gravitational waves detectable by future space‑based observatories like LISA.

via Space|

#black-holes #galaxy-j0148-4214 #gravitational-waves

science2 months ago•4 min saved

Thermodynamics May Foretell the Final Fate of Merging Black Holes

A study of non-spinning binary black hole mergers shows the remnant’s mass and spin align closely with the Kerr entropy maximum, matching numerical relativity predictions within a few percent and suggesting a maximum-entropy principle could govern dynamical mergers.

via Physics World|

#black-holes #entropy #gravitational-waves

science2 months ago•19 min saved

Two Centuries of Cosmos: 20 Decades, 20 Groundbreaking Discoveries

A sweeping, decade-spanning tour of 20 landmark cosmic discoveries—from early parallax and Neptune’s discovery to the emergence of dark energy and gravitational-wave astronomy—showing how each breakthrough reshaped our understanding of the universe and spurred new questions.

via Big Think|

#astronomy #cosmology #dark-energy

science2 months ago•10 min saved

Dynamic Horizons Extend Black Hole Thermodynamics

Penn State researchers propose using dynamical horizons instead of event horizons to define black hole entropy in real time, extending the first and second laws of black hole thermodynamics to non-equilibrium processes such as formation, merging, and evaporation, thus addressing teleological issues and offering a practical framework for evolving black holes and gravitational-wave observations.

via SciTechDaily|

#black-holes #dynamical-horizons #gravitational-waves

space-and-spaceflight2 months ago•16 min saved

Hidden Stellar-Math Black Hole Found in Dense Star Cluster, Hinting at Thousands More

Astronomers using Hubble archival data and Webb infrared observations discovered the first stellar-mass black hole (about 4.5 solar masses) orbiting a star in the Omega Centauri globular cluster, a system named oMEGACat BH-2 with a 94-year orbital period—the longest known for a black hole binary. The find suggests Omega Centauri may harbor up to ~10,000 such black holes, helping explain black hole populations in dense clusters and their relevance to gravitational-wave sources. The team plans to continue hunting for more BHs in this cluster and others over the coming years.

via Gizmodo|

#astronomy #black-holes #globular-cluster

science2 months ago•5 min saved

Record-breaking black-hole merger confirms Hawking's area law with unprecedented precision

A 1.3 billion-light-year black-hole collision (GW250114) provides the strongest observational test yet of Stephen Hawking’s 1971 black hole area law: the horizon area increases after merger, consistent with theory, with 99.999% confidence thanks to improved LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA data and analysis.

via The Times of India|

#area-law #black-holes #gravitational-waves

science2 months ago•118 min saved

Einstein wasn’t flawless: the missteps that advanced physics

Albert Einstein, celebrated for relativity and groundbreaking insights, also had notable missteps—most famously a mistaken belief that gravitational waves might not exist due to a mathematical hiccup later corrected with peer input, and early skepticism about black holes and quantum entanglement. The process of identifying and fixing these errors, rather than undermining his genius, helped push physics forward and underscored how even the brightest minds progress through errors and rigorous critique.

via Live Science|

#black-holes #einstein #gravitational-waves

science-space2 months ago•13 min saved

Four Billion Tonnes in a Teaspoon: The Dense Secret of Neutron Stars

A teaspoon of neutron-star matter weighs about four billion tonnes because gravity compresses more mass than the Sun into a city-sized sphere. The article explains how neutron stars form from collapsed stellar cores, the role of neutron degeneracy pressure in stopping collapse, their extreme surface gravity and magnetic fields, and how mergers like GW170817 forge heavy elements such as gold. It also touches on interior models and how neutron stars might help probe dark matter, while noting how the “teaspoon” analogy distills the star’s extreme density into a tangible image.

via Space Daily|

#gravitational-waves #neutron-degeneracy-pressure #neutron-star