Black Holes, Neutron Stars Merge: Astrophysicists' 'First-Ever' Confirmed Merger Detection

A large alliance of astrophysicists recently reported it had made the first-ever confirmed detections of shockwaves generated by mergers between black holes and neutron stars.

Such detections, with a 10-day interval, according to Gizmodo, represent two of these massive cosmic unions. In January 2020, the said report specified, Earth trembled ever so slightly as shockwaves unnoticeable to human senses passed through it.

Such ripples were gravitational waves, alarms in spacetime produced by all huge objects, although only detectable from tremendously huge events such as the collision of two black holes.

These waves are strong enough for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Louisiana to pick up and the similar Virgo research in Pisa, Italy. Such experiments identify gravitational waves through the use of the sensitive arrangement of mirrors and laser beams.

ALSO READ: Here's What We Know About Comet NEOWISE and How to See Its Dazzling Show This Month

The Merger

As indicated in the study, "Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star-Black Hole Coalescences," published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, black holes are points in space with such powerful gravitational fields that "not even light can escape." These are forming when a star is dying and collapsing in on itself.

Meanwhile, neutron stars are forming similarly. They are the dead stars' enormously dense collapsed remains and mostly comprised of packed-in neutrons.

According to the co-author of the study, astrophysicist Susan Scott, from the Australian National University, the more detection their team is making, the more researchers will learn about how the stars "ended up in death spirals with black holes."

The researchers identified the players in these cosmic collisions according to their masses, which calculate according to the characteristics of the gravitational waves.

Specifically, if one of the objects is roughly double the mass of the Sun or lighter, the researchers figured it to be a neutron star. Meanwhile, if a mass is five times the Sun or larger, the study authors figured it to be a black hole.

Previously Unconfirmed Union

Two previously reported investigations raised the probability that a black hole-neuron star merger had taken place, although the objects' identities were not confirmed since one of the objects involved sat in the so-called "mass gap" between the tiniest known black holes and the largest identified neuron stars.

According to Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics astrophysicist Bhooshah Gadre, while gravitational waves alone do not show the structure of a lighter object, its maximum mass can be inferred.

The astrophysicist added, by combining the information with theoretical forecasts of expected neutron star masses in such a binary system, they concluded that a neutron star is the most possible explanation.

The two occurrences were detected 10 days apart, dated on January 5 and January 15, 2020, a LIGO report said. The study investigators said they are unsure where in the universe the waves originated, although they know that they were 900 million years and one billion light-years away, respectively, based on how strong the waves were compared or how strong they were expected by the researchers to be at their origin.

Scott explained, while the occurrences are called "mergers" between black holes and neutron stars, it was possibly more like the black holds consuming the neutron stars than the collision of the two in space.

First, but Not the Last Confirmed Merger

Based on the two new detections, the team of researchers approximated that one of these black hole-neutron star mergers occurs about once every month within the Earth's one billion light-years.

The next observing run for the team, set to start next summer, will aim to discover more of these black hole-neutron star mergers.

Scott said they are going after new types of sources as well, like gravitational waves from a supernova that explodes, and a continuous stream as well, of fainter gravitational waves that come from a spinning neutron star which will further help the detectors to understand the neutron star material's nature.

The first confirmed black hole-neutron star mergers have occurred, and they are definitely not the last. The next observing run will optimistically reveal more of such notable pairings.

Information about the black hole-neutron star merger is shown on the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics' YouTube video below: