Gravitational waves

Scientists’ collection of gravitational waves just got a lot bigger

Scientists added 4 new sets of spacetime ripples to their inventory

BY 

EMILY CONOVER 

1:19PM, DECEMBER 4, 2018

COUNT ’EM  Physicists have now spotted gravitational waves from 10 black hole collisions (two black holes illustrated) and one neutron star merger.

Astronomers have now tallied up more gravitational wave sightings than they can count on their fingers.  

Scientists with the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories report four new sets of these ripples in spacetime. Those additions bring the total count to 11, the researchers say in a study published December 3 at arXiv.org, marking major progress since the first gravitational wave detection in 2015 (SN: 3/5/16, p. 6).

All but one of the 11 sets of waves were stirred up in violent collisions of two black holes. The one remaining detection, reported in October 2017, instead came from the smashup of two stellar corpses called neutron stars(SN: 11/11/17, p. 6).