{"id":19355,"date":"2016-06-15T22:29:28","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T14:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ligo-gets-lit-up-again-by-gravitational-waves-from-another-black-hole-crash\/"},"modified":"2016-06-15T22:29:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T14:29:28","slug":"ligo-gets-lit-up-again-by-gravitational-waves-from-another-black-hole-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ligo-gets-lit-up-again-by-gravitational-waves-from-another-black-hole-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"LIGO gets lit up again by gravitational waves from another black hole crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LIGO
An artist\u2019s conception shows gravitational waves emanating like ripples in space time as two black holes approach each other in their orbits. (Credit: T. Pyle \/ LIGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It looks as if gravitational-wave watchers are in for a bumpy, beautiful ride. Scientists using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, have confirmed the detection of another merger involving two faraway black holes.<\/p>\n

The observations, which were made last Christmas and reported today in a paper published by Physical Review Letters, support the idea that LIGO could open up a whole new branch of astronomy focusing on gravitational disturbances and black holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a promising start to mapping the populations of black holes in our universe,\u201d Gabriela Gonzalez, a Louisiana State University astrophysicist who serves as the spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

She and her colleagues say this smash-up was smaller than the first black-hole merger, which was observed in September and reported by the LIGO team in February. That clash involved black holes that were 29 and 36 times as massive as the sun. This one brought together black holes that were eight and 14 times the sun\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n

During the smash-up, an amount of mass roughly equivalent to the sun\u2019s was converted into gravitational-wave energy in accordance with Albert Einstein\u2019s E=mc2<\/sup> formula. The merger resulted in a single spinning black hole, 21 times as massive as the sun.<\/p>\n

Gravitational-wave ripples from the crash spread out through spacetime for 1.4 billion years. Late on Christmas night, the signal reached LIGO\u2019s two detectors, located on the Hanford Reservation in Washington state and in Livingston, La. The signal swept through the Louisiana detector first. It hit Hanford about 1.1 milliseconds later.<\/p>\n

The detectors recorded the signal\u2019s rising frequency pattern as a \u201cchirp\u201d that ended with the black hole merger.<\/p>\n