LIGO data includes at least one more black hole merger

poppageek
poppageek
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 259
Credit: 2,473,733,872
RAC: 0
Topic 198651

Quote:

When the LIGO collaboration announced the first, unambiguous detection of the gravitational waves produced by a black hole merger, several of the researchers hinted that there would be further news emerging from the mass of data obtained during the first run of Advanced LIGO. That news has now arrived in the form of GW151226, a merger of two black holes roughly seven and 14 times the mass of our Sun.

Because of their small size, the black holes spent more time producing gravitational waves prior to their collision. In some ways, this gives us more information, but the lower intensity of the waves mean that there are much larger errors attached to most of its properties.

Full article:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/ligo-data-includes-at-least-one-more-black-hole-merger/

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6,578
Credit: 306,851,431
RAC: 188,409

LIGO data includes at least one more black hole merger

My jaw has dropped. In happiness that is ! :-)

Quote:
The orientation of the two LIGO detectors just happens to be arranged so that a source signal in this direction is hard to measure.

How good is this ! I'll have to absorb this great finding. What a time to be alive. :-))))

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Two events in four months of data, so that's six per year. Well at least that is the expected/predicted order of magnitude for the event rate.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

poppageek
poppageek
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 259
Credit: 2,473,733,872
RAC: 0

Two results already. Amazing

Two results already. Amazing indeed. :-)

MAGIC Quantum Mechanic
MAGIC Quantum M...
Joined: 18 Jan 05
Posts: 1,855
Credit: 1,345,846,026
RAC: 1,518,453
Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6,578
Credit: 306,851,431
RAC: 188,409

I sucked my breath in when I

I sucked my breath in when I first heard of the press conference and I was kinda hoping Bruce Allen would be listed as giving an announcement .... :-)))

{ .... patience .... }

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

MAGIC Quantum Mechanic
MAGIC Quantum M...
Joined: 18 Jan 05
Posts: 1,855
Credit: 1,345,846,026
RAC: 1,518,453

RE: I sucked my breath in

Quote:

I sucked my breath in when I first heard of the press conference and I was kinda hoping Bruce Allen would be listed as giving an announcement .... :-)))

{ .... patience .... }

Cheers, Mike.

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news/ligo20160615b

I am going to try to talk the wife into letting us make the drive over to Hanford to this in August

Of course since it is at night I would have to find a decent hotel in that area.

And she will then try to get me to drive to Idaho since we have a grandaughter over there.

.......which means leaving my computers home alone

astro-marwil
astro-marwil
Joined: 28 May 05
Posts: 527
Credit: 591,706,543
RAC: 1,098,753

Hallo! It´s the seconde big

Hallo!
It´s the seconde big event after so short time. Congratulations!
The signal is about a decade less energetic than GW150914. Amazing the sensitivity.
Unfortunately they didn´t publish the direction the signal came from.
But I´m curious about the results from the first tasks we where (are) running here.

Kind regards and happy crunching
Martin

AgentB
AgentB
Joined: 17 Mar 12
Posts: 915
Credit: 513,211,304
RAC: 0

RE: Unfortunately they

Quote:

Unfortunately they didn´t publish the direction the signal came from.

Not in the news releases, but they have published the probability maps. see Ligo Detections

This site is great to view them

Gravoscope

and it shows the two (and a half) detections so far. The GW151226 covers a lot of sky, ~1400 square degrees at 90% was the original estimate.

astro-marwil
astro-marwil
Joined: 28 May 05
Posts: 527
Credit: 591,706,543
RAC: 1,098,753

Hallo AgentB! Thakyou for

Hallo AgentB!
Thakyou for these realy informable lesds.

Kind regards and happy crunching
Martin

pututu
pututu
Joined: 6 Apr 17
Posts: 61
Credit: 653,417,392
RAC: 936

A paper just published today

A paper just published today on another discovery of a merger of black holes. It appears so big, about 150 times the mass of our sun. Here is the paper.

I originally read it from yahoo news this morning.

tullio
tullio
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 2,118
Credit: 61,407,735
RAC: 0

I have read about it in the

I have read about it in the "Nature Briefing" Newsletter which I receive without having a paid subscription.

Tullio

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.