The detection of a gravitational wave that shows the collision of two black holes that occurred seven billion years ago, before the formation of the solar system, is important news, as it gives scientists new clues about the origin of stars, said William Lee Ardín, Coordinator of Scientific Research at UNAM.
The researcher from the Institute of Astronomy explained that it is an event that was recorded by the gravitational wave observatories of the LIGO detector in the United States and Virgo in Italy. This finding allows us to observe the Universe in a different way, since it gives us a complementary vision in the light of the objects we know.
The gravitational waves are small tremors in the space-time like tiny stones were on the surface of a pond or disturbances in an elastic membrane which has stopped corners and trembles at the throw a ball.
In 2015 the first direct detection of the collision of black holes occurred and since then this class of objects have been recorded, “these vibrations of space-time allow us to know that something far away and a long time ago, collided or exploded“.
In 2015 the first direct detection of the collision of two black holes occurred, and since then this class of objects has been recorded. “ These vibrations of space-time allow us to know that something far away, and long ago, collided or exploded.
Gravitational waves tell us that a lot of mass moved very quickly. They are a prediction of Einstein’s theory from 105 years ago and they tell us about objects that explode, and do things at enormous distances: they are born, die or make violent movements ” , he explained.
He explained that the detections made until now had been black holes of eight to 50 times the mass of the So l. “There have always been two, and from the signal you can measure the mass of each of them. In these mergers of pairs a black hole of up to 85 solar masses was formed”, he specified.
The astronomer explained that black holes of a few dozen solar masses come from the death of massive stars, which at that time produce a supernova explosion ; if it is very light, a neutron star is formed. However, if it is more massive, it forms black holes that can have several tens of solar masses.