The gravitational wave suspected by the black hole swallowed the neutron star emitted

American astronomers found solid evidence of a merger between a black hole and neutron star on August 14.

900 million years ago, a black hole emitted a "gasp" sound that echoed throughout the universe. On August 14, ripples from the black hole spread in the space-time field and transmitted to Earth, providing the best evidence of an unprecedented collision, helping scientists understand more. about how the universe works.

Picture 1 of The gravitational wave suspected by the black hole swallowed the neutron star emitted
Black holes emit gravitational waves when swallowing neutron stars.(Photo: LIGO).

The discovery, named S190814bv, is more likely to result from a merger between a black hole and a neutron star, a super-dense remnant of an exploding star. Although astronomers have long suspected that such binary systems exist, they have never observed them with a telescope that scans the light.

Astronomers also speculate that the binary system will create ripples of waves called gravitational waves when black holes and neutron stars merge . Ripples in the space field - this time is predicted more than a century ago in the general theory of physicist Albert Einstein. Einstein said that the collision between two super-large objects would distort the space field - the time of the universe.

Gravitational waves were first discovered in 2015 when the Laser Interferometer (LIGO) in the US received the signal of two merging black holes. Since then, LIGO and Virgo, another European observatory, have observed more black hole mergers as well as the collision of neutron stars. Both LIGO and Virgo stations detected S190814bv. If this is the merger of a black hole and neutron star, the discovery will be the third type of collision that produces gravitational waves.

Although the detectors also received a signal of a black hole merger - a neutron star on April 26, the team at LIGO said S190814bv is much more noticeable. The event in April is likely to be a noise from Earth but S190814bv certainly comes from our planet, according to Christopher Berry, a physicist at Northwestern University. LIGO and Virgo both trace the origin of S190814bv from about 11 times the oval sky than the full moon.

"There are two mysteries that this event can reveal to us. What is the maximum mass of neutron stars and the minimum mass of black holes?" Berry said.

The sophisticated features of gravitational waves can allow the team to identify smaller objects in the collision S190814bv. Post-detection measurements can last for weeks, helping to determine if the smaller object is a neutron star.