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First Joint Detection of Gravitational Waves by LIGO and Virgo

posted by martyb on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the That's-heavy,-man! dept.

dx3bydt3 writes:

For the first time three gravitational wave detectors have recorded the same event. The detection was made by both LIGO and Advanced Virgo (which has just recently begun collecting data for the first time). From the news release:

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo collaboration report the first joint detection of gravitational waves with both the LIGO and Virgo detectors. This is the fourth announced detection of a binary black hole system and the first significant gravitational-wave signal recorded by the Virgo detector, and highlights the scientific potential of a three-detector network of gravitational-wave detectors.

The three-detector observation was made on August 14, 2017 at 10:30:43 UTC. The two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Virgo detector, located near Pisa, Italy, detected a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar mass black holes.

A paper about the event, known as GW170814, has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:58AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @06:58AM (#574266)

    Aristarcus?

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:18AM (2 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday September 28 2017, @07:18AM (#574269) Journal

    Look, AC, you have to spell the name correctly. Then you have to say it three times! Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, it may have already gone supernova, you know, with enough energy to destroy all life on earth. Just it takes several thousand years for it's light to get to us!

    Betelgeuse: The Eventual Supernova

    Betelgeuse is a star nearing the end of its life. Because it is creating heavier and heavier elements in its core that could be used for stars after it dies, a NASA story once dubbed the red giant a workaholic.

    Professional astronomers also keep a close eye on the star, as it is notoriously variable: its diameter changes from anywhere between 550 to 920 times the sun's diameter. In 2013, astronomers said Betelgeuse is likely to crash into a "cosmic wall" of interstellar dust in a few thousand years.

    The star's location is:

            Right ascension: 05 hours 55 minutes 10.3 seconds
            Declination: +07 degrees 24 minutes 25 seconds

    It is probable that the name "Betelgeuse" originated in Arabic words, but the star had other names (for example) in Sanskrit, traditional Chinese and even in Hawaiian; in the latter, it was known as Kauluakoko.

    The coming supernova

    When astronomers say Betelgeuse is expected to explode soon, they mean shortly in astronomical terms: within a million years, according to several sources. Predicting exactly when it will turn into a supernova is difficult, however, as it depends on precise calculations of its mass as well as an understanding of what is going on inside the star.

    Betelgeuse is so vast — its size would extend beyond Jupiter's orbit if it were placed in the sun's position in the solar system — that several telescopes have captured images of the star and spotted it shedding mass. Starting in 1993 and continuing for at least 15 years, its radius shrank by 15 percent, an astonishing amount for so short a time.

    "We do not know why the star is shrinking," said Edward Wishnow, a research physicist at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, in 2009.

    Spell the name correctly. It will kill you irregardless, but protocol and decency demands getting the details right. My name is aristarchus. No initial cap. Born on the isle of Samos. Educated and taught in Alexandria. Know with whom you are dealing, or I shall have to say, "Shit, Shit, " Will this call you forth, AC? Do we dare make the experiment?

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 28 2017, @02:47PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 28 2017, @02:47PM (#574363) Journal

      Beetlejuice?

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @05:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @05:39PM (#574456)

      it depends on precise calculations of its mass as well as an understanding of what is going on inside the star.

      This article is about gravitational waves, part of GR theory. There is no precise way to calculate mass in GR:

      Since the observable universe isn't asymptotically flat, nor is it stationary, and since it may not be an isolated system, none of our definitions of mass in General Relativity apply, and there is no way to calculate the mass of the observable universe.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_in_general_relativity [wikipedia.org]