New research suggests that the famous black hole Cygnus X-1 – first black hole ever detected and one of the closest to Earth – is farther away and much more massive than previously believed. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/cygnus-x-1-black-hole-more-massive-farther…
Tag: gravitational wave
Can Dark Matter Be Explained By a Link to a Fifth Dimension?
The standard model of physics can’t accommodate some observed phenomena, notes Popular Mechanics. Yet “In a new study, scientists say they can explain dark matter by positing a particle that links to a fifth dimension.” While the “warped extra dimension” (WED) is a trademark of a popular physics model first introduced in 1999, this research, published in The European Physical Journal…
Galaxy-Size Gravitational-Wave Detector Hints At Exotic Physics
The fabric of spacetime may be frothing with gigantic gravitational waves, and the possibility has sent physicists into a tizzy. A potential signal seen in the light from dead stellar cores known as pulsars has driven a flurry of theoretical papers speculating about exotic explanations. Scientific American reports: The most mundane, yet still quite sensational, possibility is that researchers working with…
Astronomers spot bizarre, never-before-seen activity from one of the strongest magnets in the universe
Astronomers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and CSIRO have just observed bizarre, never-seen-before behavior from a radio-loud magnetar—a rare type of neutron star and one of the strongest magnets in the universe. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-astronomers-bizarre-never-before-seen-strongest-magnets.html…
The largest-ever catalog of gravitational waves released
One of humankind’s greatest achievements was made on 14th Sept 2015 when the first direct detection of a gravitational wave event was made using the aLIGO observatories in Washington State and Louisana in the U.S. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-largest-ever-gravitational.html…
China launched two satellites to find sources of gravitational waves
A pair of satellites launched from China carry detectors for gamma rays and charged particles, which could help locate the source of gravitational wave signals Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262495-china-launched-two-satellites-to-find-sources-of-gravitational-waves/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Fifty Gravitational Wave Events Illustrated
Over fifty Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html…
Astronomers release a black hole family portrait
“Black hole family portrait” is a fancy way of saying “new catalog.” But it’s a very important and exciting catalog, released October 28, 2020 by gravitational wave astronomers, containing 39 new signals from black hole or neutron star collisions. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/ligo-virgo-new-catalog-gwtc-2-black-hole-family-portrait…
LIGO and Virgo announce 39 new gravitational wave discoveries during first half of third observing run
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration released a catalog of results from the first half of its third observing run (O3a), and scientists have detected more than three times as many gravitational waves than the first two runs combined. Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015 and are ripples in time and space produced by merging black holes and/or neutron…
New research suggests innovative method to analyse the densest star systems in the Universe
In a recently published study, a team of researchers led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash university suggests an innovative method to analyse gravitational waves from neutron star mergers, where two stars are distinguished by type (rather than mass), depending on how fast they’re spinning. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-method-analyse-densest-star-universe.html…