The insane degree of rotation after the collision of a pair of black holes, proving once again the correctness of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The astronomers analyzed the double black hole merger GW200129 discovered by LIGO and Virgo and saw the black hole precession predicted by general relativity, 10 billion times faster than previous observations of the precession of other celestial bodies.
In 2020, LIGO and Virgo teamed up to discover an event called a pair of binary black holes colliding to release gravitational waves, called GW200129. The mass of the largest black hole before the merger was about 40 times that of the sun, and the Cardiff University team from the UK carried out a follow-up analysis and found one. Black holes spin like crazy.
Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted more than 100 years ago that an axial precession phenomenon called precession should have occurred in binary systems of black holes, but the effect’s signal is very weak and difficult to detect, until now scientists have finally observed this rare phenomenon.
These 2 giant objects are dragging each other into ever closer orbits, shaking like drunken tops. In the past, it took astronomers more than 75 years to find the fastest precession motion from a pair of pulsar orbits, but the black hole GW200129 is oscillating faster than the former is 10 billion times faster, 3 times per second. .
Most of the black holes we’ve discovered so far in gravitational wave events rotate fairly slowly, with GW200129 likely an exception. The new article was published in the journal Nature.
(Source of the first image:pixabay）
