The worldwide team of scientists that detected the first gravitational wave in September 2015 as part of the global Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project have detected the gravitational wave for a second time.
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P Ajith, who led eight other scientists from ICTS in the theoretical modeling of gravitational waves from merging black hole systems, said: “After completing the analysis of the data from Advanced LIGO’s first observational run, we knew that there is a very confident detection of a second gravitational-wave event”. Near simultaneous detection in Louisiana and Washington of similar wave shapes is used to confirm that the mirrors’ motion was caused by astronomical gravitational waves.
The waves were “captured” by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in USA communities the Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, on December 26 but the news has only now been made public.
LIGO started operating in 2002 but did not detect any gravitational waves for years until the detector was made more sensitive.
The first detection of gravitational waves, announced on February 11, 2016, was a milestone in physics and astronomy: It confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity, and marked the beginning of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy.
The GW151226 signal comes from the last 27 orbits of the black holes before their merger.
On September 14 previous year, the detectors picked up the very first signal of a gravitational wave, which stretched each detector by as little as a fraction of a proton’s diameter.
Shoemaker noted that because black holes do not emit light, they are invisible except for the presence of gravitational waves.
“Now that we are able to detect gravitational waves, they are going to be a phenomenal source of new information about our galaxy and an entirely new channel for discoveries about the universe”, said Chad Hanna, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University. This colossal cosmic collision produces a singular spinning supermassive black hole that possesses 21 solar masses.
Even though these black holes are less massive and lighter mass in comparison to that of the first one. By then, further improvements in detector sensitivity are expected to allow LIGO to reach as much as 1.5 to 2 times more of the volume of the universe. This rotation can help with greater understanding of the origin and evolution of black holes.
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“Remarkably, we could also infer that at least one of the two black holes in the binary was spinning”. The paper about the second burst has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, reports Gizmodo.
