First extreme pairs spotted
A new piece has been
added to the puzzle of
gravitational waves,
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detections of waves from
a ‘mixed’ source – one
where both a neutron star
and a black hole collide.
Two such events were
spotted back in January
2020 by the LIGO and
Virgo gravitational
wave observatories,
but their origin was only
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It’s been theorised for
decades that there are
binary systems featuring
a black hole and a neutron
star, but none have been
found within our Galaxy.
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robust detections of
neutron-star–black-hole
mergers. This important
new source of gravitational
waves could help us answer
crucial questions about
how, and where, neutron
stars and black holes form
in the cosmos,” says Prof
Sheila Rowan, director of
the University of Glasgow’s
Institute for Gravitational
Research and part of the
LIGO collaboration.
The illustration here
shows one of these mixed
sources, a neutron star
spiralling into a black hole.