GW150914 - two black holes merge and the signal reaches Earth
The two Advanced LIGO interferometers registered a coincident signal sweeping upward in frequency over about a fifth of a second and then cutting off - the inspiral, merger and ringdown of two black holes of roughly thirty-six and twenty-nine solar masses, forming a final hole of about sixty-two and radiating some three solar masses as gravitational waves. The signal arrived at Livingston about seven milliseconds before Hanford. It was the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole system of any kind; the source lay several hundred megaparsecs away, and the event happened before the detectors' formal observing run had officially begun.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Gravitational waves · phenomenon · not located
- LIGO Hanford Observatory · research facility · United States
- LIGO Livingston Observatory · research facility · United States
- The event horizon · concept · not located
- The no-hair result · concept · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
The first direct detection of gravitational waves, from the merger of two black holes on 14 September 2015. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: not consulted in session; WebFetch to www.ligo.org and every other host was refused by the egress proxy. Volume and article number are from recall of a canonical citation; component masses and distance quoted in this pack are recalled central values with uncertainties omitted.
Physical Review Letters (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) · 2016-02-11 · Partly verified
B. P. Abbott et al., Physical Review Letters 116, 061102 (2016)
Recorded on Gravitational waves
- Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity
- Schwarzschild solves the field equations for a point mass
- Oppenheimer and Snyder compute continued gravitational contraction
- Kerr finds the rotating solution
- Penrose proves that collapse to a singularity is generic
- Hawking argues that information is destroyed
- GW150914 - two black holes merge and the signal reaches Earth
- The detection is announced and published
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The detection is announced and published · 2016-02-11
- Hawking argues that information is destroyed · 1976
- Penrose proves that collapse to a singularity is generic · 1965
- Kerr finds the rotating solution · 1963
- Oppenheimer and Snyder compute continued gravitational contraction · 1939
- Schwarzschild solves the field equations for a point mass · 1916
- Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity · 1915-11