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Clearest Gravitational-Wave Signal Lets LIGO Confirm Hawking's Area Law and Kerr Black Holes
The GW250114 signal from merging black holes 1.3 billion light years away confirms Hawking's area theorem with a 67% increase in event horizon surface area, researchers say.
- Astronomers detected a collision between two black holes, known as GW250114, which confirmed predictions by physicists Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking about black holes.
- The event was measured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Louisiana and Washington, revealing details about the black holes, including their mass, which was approximately 63 times that of the sun.
- Maximiliano Isi noted the clarity of the findings, allowing for the confirmation of long-held theories about black hole characteristics and the merging black holes' masses, each about 30 to 35 times the mass of the sun.
- Emanuele Berti described this detection as significant for testing fundamental physics and remarked on the advancements of LIGO that enable unprecedented confidence in confirming theories of black hole behavior.
67 Articles
67 Articles
Scientists prove a key Hawking black hole theory
Ten years after scientists observed gravitational waves for the first time, confirming Albert Einstein’s then century-old prediction, new data confirmed another renowned physicist’s seminal hypothesis. Stephen Hawking’s “area theorem” posited that the event horizon of a black hole, from which not even light can escape, can only grow, and never shrink.The perfect way to test that is to use gravitational waves to measure the surface of two collidi…
Ten years later, LIGO is a black-hole hunting machine
On September 14, 2015, a signal arrived on Earth, carrying information about a pair of remote black holes that had spiraled together and merged. The signal had traveled about 1.3 billion years to reach us at the speed of light—but it was not made of light. It was a different kind of signal: a quivering of space-time called gravitational waves first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years prior.
After 10 years of gravitational wave astronomy, what will be the next new eye on the cosmos?
For the past decade, gravitational wave astronomy has opened our eyes to amazing cosmic phenomena thanks to LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. Bob McDonald celebrates LIGO and how far astronomy has come as he looks to the future of mysteries that remain in the universe.
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