The gravitational wave observatories at LIGO scientific collaboration have detected a merger of two unequal-mass black holes for the first time since it started functioning.
Key takeaways:
The event is dubbed as GW190412.
It was detected nearly a year ago.
The event involved two black holes of unequal masses combining together.
One of the black holes was around 30 times the mass of the Sun and the other had a mass nearly 8 times the sun’s mass.
The actual merger took place at a distance of 2.5 billion light years away.
Important value additions:
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
It is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations.
It is the world’s largest gravitational wave observatory.
It consists of two detectors situated 1,865 miles (3,002 kilometers) apart in isolated regions in the states of Washington and Louisiana.
