News Physics

More events needed to pin down gravitational waves backstory

Astronomers seek origins of black hole pairs responsible for spacetime ripples

two black holes merging

DUOS’ DANCE   Mergers of two pairs of black holes (illustrated) showcase ability of gravitational waves as a new tool for understanding the universe. LIGO detected gravitational waves from both mergers shown, but at different times and in different parts of the sky. 

A. Simonnet/LIGO

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

SAN DIEGO — While astrophysicists celebrate the second detection of ripples in spacetime (SN Online: 6/15/16), they are also looking ahead to figuring out what led to these cosmic quakes.