Scientists have recorded gravitational waves of unprecedented power from the collision of giant black holes

Gravitational waves from mega-black hole collision detected, confirming Einstein’s theory of general relativity

In a study published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters , scientists have discovered evidence of huge black hole collisions hiding in data collected in 2019 by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. The largest black hole merger ever recorded has produced a black hole 150 times heavier than the Sun, challenging some accepted theories.

Physicist Badri Krishnan, one of the study’s authors, noted that he had previously considered such an analysis as a theoretical possibility, but never thought he would see such results in his lifetime. The merger, recorded under the name GW190521 on May 21, 2019, stood out among dozens of similar events. Its merger rate was so low that the system only came within the sensitivity range of LIGO and Virgo during the latter two orbits.

Krishnan and his colleagues decided to find out whether gravitational waves from this event carried information not only about the time before the merger, but also about the moments immediately after it. When two black holes merge, an asymmetric black hole is formed, which quickly takes on a spherical shape. Just as a bell rings at certain frequencies depending on its shape, a stabilizing black hole “decays” by emitting gravitational waves at frequencies determined by its mass and spin.

The researchers analyzed data from the GW190521 event and found two distinct decay frequencies that add up to indicate that the resulting black hole has a mass of about 250 solar masses—much larger than the LIGO-Virgo team’s original analysis estimated.

These discoveries provide a new, rigorous test of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, making detailed predictions about black holes and gravitational waves. As Stephen Giddings, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, emphasized, we are truly exploring a new frontier of knowledge.