@LIGO@astrodon.social
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LIGO

@LIGO@astrodon.social

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration. We detect gravitational waves!

Email: questions@ligo.org

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LIGO, to random
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Low mass beats to study black holes to

https://soundcloud.com/user-889003031/low-mass-beats

Each note represents one of our observed sources, with binaries merging together to form bigger black holes. The bigger the black hole, the lower the note

LIGO, to random
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

We have observed a diverse family of black holes using

We now now they come in a range of sizes, but what are the biggest and smallest black holes we have discovered?

1/🧵

📊: @NUCIERA

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

When two black holes merge, they form a bigger black hole. This bigger black hole will have around 95% of the mass of its two parent black holes. The remaining 5% is carried away as the energy in the gravitational waves

We measure black hole masses in solar masses (our Sun is 1 solar mass)

The biggest black holes we have seen are the merger remnants for
⚫️GW200220_061928 around 140 solar masses
⚫️GW190521 around 150 solar masses
⚫️GW190426_190642 around 170 solar masses

2/🧵

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

Could these black holes go on to merge again to form even bigger black holes? Maybe! This could happen if they are in a globular cluster or a nuclear star cluster where there are many black holes in a small region

It is possible that some of the binaries we have detected already were formed this way. As we observe more ,we'll be able to uncover the details of how our black holes form

3/🧵

🎬: Hubble Space Telescope

A globular cluster. It is full of stars!

LIGO,
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What's the smallest black hole we've detected? We're not sure!

The maximum neutron star mass is currently uncertain. We hope to measure it with future observations. We know it must be between 2 and 3 solar masses

The less massive objects of GW190814 (about 2.6 solar masses) and GW200210_092254 (about 2.8 solar masses) could be either massive neutron stars or small black holes

4/🧵

🖼️: Caltech/MIT/R Hurt

LIGO,
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What about the smallest definite black hole?

GW230529 is our first discovery announced from our fourth observing run. Its source is probably a neutron star–black hole binary, and the black hole is about 3.6 solar masses

5/🧵

📊: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.04248

LIGO,
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GW230529's black hole is in the range of the hypothesised mass gap. X-ray observations had not found black holes below 5 solar masses, so it was suggested that supernova explosions don't form black holes in this range. This observations suggestions otherwise

Low-mass black holes are less likely to swallow neutron stars whole. Hence, we could be more likely to have a counterpart to neutron star–black hole mergers that telescopes could see!

https://youtu.be/3PKsBwH_bJE

6/🧵

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

Discover more about some of our biggest and smallest (potential) black holes from our science summaries

📚GWTC-3 https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-O3bCatalog/
🐳GW190521 https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GW190521/
❔GW190814 https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GW190814/
🐁GW230529 https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GW230529/

7/🧵

LIGO, to Astro
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provide a unique way to study black holes

This Orrery (by Zoheyr Doctor) illustrates the diverse black hole binaries and neutron star black–hole binaries from our O3b run. More massive binaries are shown as orbiting more slowly

Cartoon of the various binaries from GWTC-3. There is a wide range of mass for the black holes, from about 6 times the mass of our Sun to about 90 times the mass of our Sun

LIGO, to Astro
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How do we learn about black holes from gravitational waves? Key properties leave fingerprints in the gravitational-wave signal. This infographic from the LIGO Magazine explains more

https://www.ligo.org/magazine/LIGO-magazine-issue-8-extended.pdf#page=6

📊: Nutsinee Kijbunchoo @cplberry & Ben Farr

LIGO, to random
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When two black holes merge they emit a huge amount of energy as gravitational waves. The peak luminosity in gravitational waves is greater than the luminosity in visible light of all the stars we can see in the Universe

🎬: SXS Collaboration

Simulation of two black holes merging

LIGO, to random
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Today the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration is proud to announce GW230529, the first exceptional gravitational wave event from our fourth observing run. You can learn more by visiting our detection page:

https://www.ligo.org/detections/GW230529.php

Image credit: Shanika Galaudage / Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur

LIGO, to random
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We're now half-way through our 2 week engineering run. On 3 April, we should start the second part of our fourth observing run (O4b)

We have enjoyed a few stretches with Hanford, Livingston and Virgo observing together! Here's a plot of performance on Saturday

The plot shows the binary neutron star inspiral range: an average distance to which we could detect a standard binary of 1.4 solar mass components. More massive binaries could be seen to greater distance.

📈: https://gwosc.org/detector_status/day/20240323/

LIGO, to random
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Congratulations to the @LISA mission is recieving approval from ESA’s Science Programme Committee! We're looking forward to detection in space

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Capturing_the_ripples_of_spacetime_LISA_gets_go-ahead

LIGO, to random
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The first half of our fourth observing run (O4a) has come to a close

We'll be back with an engineering run on 13 March, and should start the second half of the observing run (O4b) on 27 March

https://observing.docs.ligo.org/plan/

Please no-one explode until we're back!

LIGO, to random
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

"Behind the scenes working on LIGO [...] opened (and is still opening) my eyes to the engineering and ingenuity required to achieve an interferometer of this scale, precision and success."

Find out more about Ibrahim at https://humansofligo.blogspot.com/2024/01/ibrahim-abouelfettouh.html

LIGO, to random
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We are excited that our paper has been published in Physical Review X!

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041039

This is the catalog of our discoveries up to the end of our third observing run in 2020

LIGO,
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Gravitational-waves provide a new tool for astronomy. What has it taught us so far? Catch up on all the science from with our science summary, featuring a small selection of some of our most exciting candidates

https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-O3bCatalog/

📊: I Romero-Shaw

LIGO,
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Create your own visualizations of gravitational-wave candidates with this new Streamlit app

https://gwtc3-contours.streamlit.app/

LIGO,
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The dance of black holes and neutron stars

This Orrery created by Zoheyr Doctor illustrates the masses of our O3b candidates. More massive binaries slowly waltz, while lower mass ones energetically swing

📰: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041039

Cartoon of masses of merging black hole and neutron star binaries

LIGO,
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Highlights of : our factsheet picks out some of the most interesting candidates from our last observing run. Which is your favourite?

Factsheet: some particularly exciting sources

LIGO,
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Low mass beats to study to

https://soundcloud.com/user-889003031/low-mass-beats

This sonification of our results uses different notes for different masses of black holes and neutron stars: the more massive they are, the deeper the note. You'll hear two notes together, followed by a deeper one to represent a binary merging

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

"Gravitational wave astronomy introduced us to a whole new way to observe the Universe, and a lot of answers to very big questions indeed are possible to find now. We're just getting started."

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/bad-astronomy-more-black-hole-and-neutron-star-mergers-seen

@badastro reviews

LIGO,
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"And they include some real monsters: two events involved black holes with masses more than 60 times that of the Sun. For astrophysicists, the mere existence of these black holes is problematic"

Davide Castelvecchi on our discoveries when released

https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03089-y

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

“Each new observing run brings new discoveries and surprises. The third observing run saw gravitational wave detection becoming an everyday thing, but I still think each detection is exciting!" - Hannah Middleton

https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/stellar-mass-graveyard-just-doubled-size

@CosmicRami explains discoveries from

LIGO,
@LIGO@astrodon.social avatar

Everything you need to learn about the discoveries

🔖 Paper: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041039
💾 Data release: https://gwosc.org/GWTC-3/
💡 Science summary: https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-O3bCatalog/index.php
🧑‍🏫Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUyOVX1HqB8

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