The hunt for colliding black holes is launched and you can help

This is an exciting week for black holes – not only the very first image of a black hole shared by the National Science Foundation, but the hunt for gravitational waves caused by colliding black holes is also heating up.

The observatory of gravitational waves by laser interferometer (LIGO), the Nobel laureate observatory dedicated to gravitational wave research, has only been operational for two weeks. But they are already finding interesting results. The observatory has already seen evidence of two pairs of black holes colliding, according to Gizmodo.

These observations mean that other telescopes around the world can be modified to look for altered light waves, caused by the same events as gravitational waves. Christopher Berry, a professor at Northwestern University, told Gizmodo that the gravitational waves detected seemed to be a promising source of data: "They have passed our initial checks of detector behavior. We are now conducting more thorough audits and will be conducting more in-depth analyzes to determine their properties. "

In addition, a new project at West Virginia University will allow members of the public to contribute to the search for gravitational waves by giving more processing power to their computers. The BlackHoles @ Home project follows in the footsteps of Folding @ Home and other similar projects that use distributed computing power to use inactive processing power in scientific projects. The BlackHoles @ Home project will use the public's computer to review the huge amount of data collected to search for gravitational wave evidence.

"As our gravitational wave detectors become more sensitive, we will have to significantly intensify our efforts to understand all the information encoded in gravitational waves coming from colliding binary black holes," said Zachariah Etienne, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. University of West Virginia. "We are turning to the general public to help us in these efforts, which involve generating an unprecedented number of consistent simulations of these extremely energetic collisions. It will truly be an inclusive effort, and we hope above all to inspire the next generation of scientists in this rapidly growing field of gravitational wave astrophysics. "

Etienne's team is creating the downloadable software that will allow people to contribute to the efforts. They hope to release the free software later this year and you can monitor the status of the project on the BlackHoles @ Home website.