admin Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, published in 1905, postulated the existence of gravitational waves, vibrations in the fabric of spacetime. And he is over a century old, and we have irrefutable proof of this. A new study finds clear evidence of relativistic precession in the orbits of two colliding black holes.
The science and other stuff to know
Since the first discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, it has become a fertile field of modern astrophysics, allowing experts to discover previously blind phenomena.
Black hole mergers are undoubtedly one of the most massive and violent events imaginable. The apocalyptic dance performed by two bodies approaching their unstoppable doom, and the fusion itself, takes so much energy that the fabric of space-time shatters like a sheet.
Thanks to detectors called interferometers, we can track these events from Earth and find out what events caused these waves and what regions of the universe they originated from. . His GW200129 signal, discovered in 2020, comes from the deadly gravitational dance of two massive black holes.
Researchers at Cardiff University have observed a strange spinning motion in the orbits of two colliding black holes, according to a press release. This is the phenomenon predicted by Einstein.
Their study, published in Nature, suggests that these black holes rotate before merging, undergoing what is called relativistic precession, orbits that are perturbed and periodically changed. concluded that it shows a trend. For example, Koma is a good example of this. The spinning top starts spinning around the vertical axis instead of rolling, and eventually the axis turns and it starts spinning. This occurs in the orbits of all systems where the gravitational force of one body affects the other, but the effect is usually negligible.
GW200129 is an exception due to the precession speed of the system. This is 10 billion times more powerful than the fastest precession measured before its discovery (75 years).
So what?
This discovery not only provides further evidence for the theory of relativity, one of the most complete theories in physics, with the greatest predictive power, but also marks the 100th anniversary of the development of the gravitational wave field. It also proves the ability to detect a phenomenon that gradually weakens. energy level.
Improvements in data analysis technology and cooperation between interferometers LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA enable more accurate measurements.
What’s next?
The interferometer network between the US (LIGO), Europe (Virgo) and KASGRA (Japan) is currently out of service due to maintenance on the delicate design of the experiment. They plan to collect data again in 2023 to track new events of this kind and hopefully many other unknown events.
“So far, most of the black holes discovered using gravitational waves are spinning fairly slowly,” co-author Charlie Hui said in a press release. “The larger black hole in this binary had about 40 times the mass of the Sun and was spinning as fast as it was physically possible. Our current model of binary star formation suggests this. It suggests that the event is extremely rare, perhaps a one-in-a-thousand event.
Researchers hope to continue discovering such phenomena. Because the first discovery of something always gives us the false impression that what we have discovered is unique. Yet it only takes better measurements and equipment to recognize that it is just one of hundreds of thousands of samples.
