Astrophysicists in Livingston Parish may have Detected a Black Hole Eating a Neutron Star

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It Looks Like LIGO/Virgo Have Detected a Black Hole Eating a Neutron Star. For the First Time Ever



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A new signal detected by LIGO/Virgo may be the so-called ‘holy grail’ of astrophysics: the merger of a neutron star and a black hole. They’ve discovered pairs of black holes merging, and pairs of neutron stars merging, but until now, not a neutron star-black hole pair.

Gravitational waves are extremely faint ripples in space time caused by calamitous events out there in the universe. It takes objects of great mass to create these waves: black holes and neutron stars. Either two black holes merging, or two neutron stars merging. Both of those have been detected, but a third possibility, a neutron-black hole merger, could also create gravitational waves. But up until now, if this turns out be one, no neutron-black hole events have been found.

The discovery of the first gravitational waves was announced back in February 2016, by LIGO and Virgo. At the time, Dave Reitze, executive director of LIGO, said, “I think we’re opening a window on the universe.” Well, a couple years later, it looks like he was right.

LIGO is the Laser Interferometer and Gravitational-Wave Observatory, and since the initial discovery in 2016 (it was actually discovered in 2015 and announced in 2016) LIGO and Virgo, the detector at the European Gravitational Observatory in Italy, have discovered some more gravitational waves.

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The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory is made up of two detectors, this one in Livingston, La., and one near Hanford, Wash. The detectors use giant arms in the shape of an “L” to measure tiny ripples in the fabric of the universe. Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

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