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About 900 million years ago, two cosmic giants collided, and the encounter ended very badly for one of them.
In a first attempt, the researchers think they have observed an elusive astronomical meeting: gravitational waves emitted by a black hole swallowing a neutron star, or the dense and collapsed remains of a stellar explosion. If confirmed, the detection, carried out August 14 by a scientist of the Laser Interferometer Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo interferometer, will be the first concrete observation of a such a fusion in space, confirming decades of forecasts.
Until now, one thing is certain: the gravitational waves themselves. Prolonged and powerful ripples in the space-time structure on the scale of those detected only occur when something truly cataclysmic, such as a collision or collapse, occurs in the cosmos.
"Something has happened in the sky," LIGO team member Daniel Holz told the University of Chicago's Emily Conover. Scientific news. "Until now, this obviously does not look like anything we've detected with great confidence before."
Of course, curious to know what detection is not is a little easier than specifying what it is. Yet researchers are hopeful. LIGO, based in Washington State, and Virgo, located in Italy, have already captured gravitational waves, revealing fusions between pairs of black holes and a collision between two neutron stars. But the last observation, called S190814bv, could be the first definitive detection of a hybrid rendezvous.
Observations made in April suggested a fusion between neutron star and black hole, but the signal was weak and several researchers warned that it was perhaps a false alarm. S190814bv, on the other hand, has much more certainty. The team behind the discovery is already collecting tracking data about the area of the space in which the collision probably occurred.
The researchers are looking for any light left in the wake of the fusion, which could have been emitted by the neutron star if it had been shaved by the black hole before being swallowed. If this is the case, astronomers will have a first glimpse of the inner workings of a neutron star, which would be fantastic. [and] as a dream for a theorist, "said Vicky Kalogera, a member of the LIGO team at Northwestern University physicist. National GeographicMichael Greshko.
If there is no remanence, the neutron star may have been swallowed intact. But it is also possible that this hungry black hole did not engulf a neutron star. It was rather a particularly small black hole, with a mass similar to that of a neutron star.
If this is the case, this particular collision could be an act of cannibalism. But as a black hole has never been found, S190814bv would still be a first and could set a new lower limit for the mass of a black hole.
Christopher Berry, a physicist at Northwestern University, a member of the LIGO team, told Greshko, "It's a win-win situation."
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