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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

Earth's gravitational wave observatories -- which hunt for ripples in the fabric of space-time [cnet.com] -- just picked up something weird. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors recorded an unknown or unanticipated "burst" of gravitational waves on Jan. 14 [ligo.org].

The gravitational waves we've detected so far usually relate to extreme cosmic events, like two black holes colliding [cnet.com] or neutron stars finally merging after being caught in a death spiral [cnet.com]. Burst gravitational waves [ligo.org] have not been detected before and scientists hypothesize they may be linked to phenomena such as supernova or gamma ray bursts, producing a tiny "pop" when detected by the observatories [ligo.org].

This unanticipated burst has been dubbed, for now, S200114f, and was detected by the software that helped confirm the first detection of gravitational waves.

[...]Astronomers have already swung their telescopes to the interesting portion of the sky, listening in across different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum for a whisper of what might have occurred.

Previously:
LIGO Observes Lower Mass Black Hole Collision [soylentnews.org]
First Joint Detection of Gravitational Waves by LIGO and Virgo [soylentnews.org]
LIGO May Have Detected Merging Neutron Stars for the First Time [soylentnews.org]
GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2 [soylentnews.org]
Europe's "Virgo" Gravitational Wave Detector Suffers From "Microcracks" [soylentnews.org]
LIGO Black Hole Echoes Hint at General-Relativity Breakdown [soylentnews.org]
LIGO Data Probes Where General Relativity Might Break Down [soylentnews.org]
Did the LIGO Gravitational Wave Detector Find Dark Matter? [soylentnews.org]
Second Detection of Gravitational Waves Announced by LIGO [soylentnews.org]

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