Production: Pablo Cantudo
Two studies published on September 2, 2020 in ‘Physical Review Letters’ and ‘Astrophysical Journal Letters’ describe the detection of the most massive black hole ever detected with gravitational waves.
The research team detected the merger of two black holes, but one of them was more massive than any other observed in such a collision. The researchers believe that the heavier of the two may be the result of a merger between two black holes.
The source of the signal, cataloged as GW190521, is estimated to be about 17 billion light-years from Earth.
In this episode of Planeta Muy, we chat with Sascha Husa and Alicia Sintes, principal researchers at the LIGO observatory for the detection of gravitational waves at the University of the Balearic Islands.
The black hole, around 142 solar masses, is the end result of the merger of two black holes of 66 and 85 solar masses. Both the primary component and the remnant are located in a mass range that has never been observed before, neither through gravitational waves nor with electromagnetic observations.
As published by the University of the Balearic Islands on its website, the gravitational wave event was detected by the three interferometers of the global network on May 21, 2019. It is estimated that the source of the GW190521 signal is located at about 17 one billion light years from Earth, and it occurred 7 billion years ago, when the universe was half the age it is now.
To date, very few candidates for intermediate mass black holes have been identified solely through electromagnetic observations and the GW190521 remnant is the first observation of an intermediate mass black hole via gravitational waves, posing a new challenge for astrophysics. .
