Clearer View of Black Hole Merger (VIDEO)
Caption
A numerical relativity simulation of the recently observed GW250114 event, a binary black hole merger detected by LIGO on January 14, 2025. The blue and white surface shows a two- dimensional slice of the gravitational waves spiraling outward as the black holes orbit one another. Throughout this inspiral, the gravitational waves grow in magnitude, peaking as the black holes merge, and then decreasing rapidly as the newly formed remnant black hole settles.
The observed gravitational-wave signal from GW250114 is shown below in white. In comparison, the gray line shows much noisier data from LIGO's first gravitational-wave observation, GW150914. While the amplitudes of these signals are comparable, significant improvements in detector sensitivity over the past decade have vastly reduced the amount of noise present in GW250114 relative to GW150914.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/hnzWNkjKkPU
Credit
Deborah Ferguson, Derek Davis, Rob Coyne (URI) / LIGO / MAYA Collaboration. Simulation performed with NSF's TACC Frontera supercomputer.
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Not for commercial use, reproduce with credits
License
Original content