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In November 2023, a powerful gravitational wave observatory detected an immense black hole. After several months of study, scientists still do not come back to it: according to known physical laws, this celestial object should not be able to exist.
Ligo has largely fulfilled its mission; Maybe even a little too much. This observatory of gravitational waves by laser interferometry, commissioned in 2002, detects gravitational waves in space. The presence of these waves in space-time can be a sign of the presence of a supernova (the explosion of a star), the collision between two neutron stars or a black hole. It is precisely this last type of phenomenon that Ligo recently detected.
More specifically, scientists who participate in analyzes in the observatory say they have detected a fusion of black holes weighing 255 times the mass of the sun. It is simply unheard of, they explain in a study to consult on Arxiv. This merger, born from a binary system of black holes, was named GW231123, in reference to the date on which it has been detected on November 23, 2023. So far, the largest holes fusion (…)