Heard the latest news from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration? We detected the collision of the most massive pair of black holes so far: #GW231123 weighing in at ~137 + ~103 times the mass of the Sun! So to celebrate, here’s a handy chart ✨ Just how chonky are these black holes? 🤔
Has the "use 'chonky' in a peer reviewed paper challenge" already commenced??
I think I need to write an April 1st paper on the chonkiness of black holes
Taking the "void kitten" to a new level (specifically, really not void)! Can I ask why the "forbidden zone" is limited to that range? Do we have good BH formation models for both lower and higher masses? Thanks!
For more details, check out this science summary: ligo.org/science-summaries/gw231123 @ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social #GW231123
Cuteness + science. 😀 BTW, are there a range of amounts that are converted to gravitational waves in these collisions? I’ve heard numbers, but they were all from evenly matched bh’s. What’s the conversion number if a smol merges with a superchonk.
Yes, many of the black holes we find are paired with similar mass black holes! Radiated energy is higher if the total mass is higher. It is also higher for things that have more equal masses. So if the total mass of hefty + hefty was the same as smol + chonk, the former would radiate more energy!
But if these two pairs had different spins, it would make this a little more complicated.
Thanks, That seems to make more sense to my pea brain than some set number like 5%.
Well in the cases the black holes are not spinning and are equal mass, the ~4-5% holds, regardless of the total mass. So a 30+30 would radiate away ~3 Msun And a 70+70 would radiate ~7 Msun That percentage changes when you introduce spins or have unequal masses.
So a supermassive could soak up a bunch stellar mass bh’s without giving back much in the way of gravitational waves. ✔️ Would LIGO be able to detect collisions with those mass differences, or would something like LISA be needed? Whooooop. 🕳️ Thank you very much for all the science!
is there a scientific publication besides the press releases?
ah, nevermind, I found it :): arxiv.org/abs/2507.08219
I am glad that I came across this magnitude of black hole chonkiness in my feeds. What an awesome TIL for the day.
Looks catastrophic! Will add that to my catalogue 😊
What a delightful infographic 😄
"bh, ya BASIC!"
🤣 *cough* I mean neutron stars are superior, right? *cough*
Like, oh my GAWD! Total-eeee.
🤣
I wrote an assignment/presentation on colliding black holes and the gravitational waves they produce… specifically GW190412 as part of my astronomy studies this year (scored 97%), I find this stuff fascinating, 18 months ago I had no idea and I think it’s where I may want to specialise
It is definitely a very cool field! This year is the 10th anniversary of the first detection, so we are really just getting started 😎
Somewhere to the left is a rapidly spinning kitty who shoots lasers from the eyes and tears her environment apart on a molecular level with magnetic superpowers. We all know a cat like that.
So I think I need to make an infographic with this visualisation… LASER KITTY
Hehe, my plan worked. Actually, I'm rather curious whether there is a difference in the merger event depending on what type of neutron star is involved. I know Chandra caught a magnetar as a merger result once.
Looking at the spectographic analysis that shows a peak about 60 Hz, that implies a wavelength of about 5000 km. Does that sound right?
Indeed! Using c = f*wavelength Gravitational waves travel at the speed of light (that’s something we confirmed back in 2017 with the detection of GW170817, a collision between two neutron stars 🤩)
This is awesome! Thank you for this information. And the graphic with the cat is just the chef's kiss!
I also appreciate how the wave at the bottom looks (inadvertently? 😀) like the head of someone enjoying a peaceful nap. Before the chonk tries to disrupt it. ❤️ Great graphic.
Oh wow, I never noticed 😂 Thanks for pointing that out!
🖤✨🖤✨🖤