Colliding black holes are reported for a fifth time
BY Parikshit Sonar 11:40AM, NOVEMBER 16, 2017 BLACK HOLE BOUNTY Gravitational waves have been spotted from two merging black holes (illustrated above), the fifth reported detection. Spacetime ripples from black holes are becoming routine. For a fifth time, scientists have reported the detection of two colliding black holes via their gravitational waves, tiny vibrations that warp the fabric of spacetime. Unlike previous gravitational wave detections , which were heralded with news conferences often featuring panels of scientists squinting at journalists under bright lights, this was a low-key announcement. The event, caught on June 8, 2017, by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, was unceremoniously unveiled in a paper published online November 15 at arXiv.org. With masses 7 and 12 times that of the sun, the pair of black holes was the lightest LIGO has spotted so far. The lack of fanfare over the detection signa...