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Just a few years ago, scientists around the world celebrated when the first gravitational waves were detected, confirming a long-standing scientific theory and opening a whole new field of research.
Now, the international research team responsible for detecting gravitational waves has announced another 39 gravitational wave events, bringing the total number of confirmed detections to 50.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Collaborations, which include researchers from the University of Portsmouth, today published a series of papers recording events including mergers of binary black holes, binary neutron stars, and possibly neutron stars – black holes.
These events were recorded during the first six months of the third observation run of the LIGO and Virgo detectors.
Dr Andrew Williamson, of the University of Portsmouth Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, said, “This new catalog of discoveries includes 39 new gravitational wave events observed between April 1 and October 1, 2019. It’s more than a discovery. per week.
“Most of these were produced by the merger of pairs of black holes, but it also includes the second-ever discovery of a pair of colliding neutron stars and possibly the first discovery of a black hole and a merger of pairs of stars. of neutrons. Neutron stars are the extremely dense remnants of dead stars, weighing more than our Sun but shattered into something the size of a city, less than 15 miles across.
“Combined with 11 discoveries made before 2019, we have now discovered 50 gravitational wave events, and many more are certainly on the way. We now have enough events that we can really start answering questions like:” How common is pairing together of black holes? “and” what does the black hole population look like? “”
British scientists designed and built instrumentation for the LIGO detectors, which are based in the United States, and contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data collected during the three observation sessions. The UK contribution to the collaborations is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
With this new expanded catalog of detections, scientists are provided with a wealth of data on black holes to rigorously test Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and provide new insights into how black holes and neutron stars arise.
This new catalog of discoveries includes 39 new gravitational wave events observed between April 1 and October 1, 2019. This is more than one discovery per week.
The Portsmouth researchers had a leading role in the planning, construction and execution of one of the main analyzes that detected the gravitational waves included in this catalog and PhD student, Simone Mozzon, spent three months working at one of the LIGO detectors in Louisiana during the course of these observations.
Simone said: “I was fortunate to work at LIGO in Livingston in late 2019, where my role was to reduce the impact of external noise sources on gravitational wave data. LIGO detectors are extremely complex and sensitive, and each component must be isolated from external noise disturbances such as ground movement due to earthquakes, ocean waves, and even people walking and talking. “
Dr Williamson said: “These findings really question what we thought we knew about how these pairs of black holes are formed. In the coming years we expect to detect gravitational waves from deep space more and more frequently, allowing us to unravel these mysteries. And there may be other surprises in store. “
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