An international team of physicists has detected the largest black hole merger ever recorded, observed through gravitational waves by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration. The event, designated GW231123, occurred approximately 10 billion light-years from Earth and involved two black holes with masses around 100 and 140 times that of the Sun. Their collision produced a single rapidly spinning black hole with an estimated mass of about 225 times the Sun's mass. This discovery challenges existing theoretical models of black hole formation, as such massive black holes were previously considered unlikely to form through direct stellar collapse. Scientists suggest that the progenitor black holes may themselves have resulted from earlier mergers, explaining their unusually large masses. The energy released during the merger is estimated at approximately 3 × 10^48 joules, an amount far exceeding the Sun's total energy output over trillions of years. The findings push the boundaries of current astrophysical understanding and will be presented at upcoming international conferences.
A beam of particles speeding away from a monstrous black hole is severely kinked, suggesting that the black hole is actually part of the most extreme binary system known. https://t.co/1JwypgTNym
“We don’t know a lot about what type of circumstances can lead to” black holes potentially forming from collapsing gas clouds. https://t.co/pe1wTANmWq
Primordial black holes, thought to have formed just fractions of a second after the Big Bang, might have played a crucial role in shaping the early universe by helping the first stars ignite. Unlike black holes formed from collapsing stars, these ancient objects could have https://t.co/amYYEFZ2eE