The signals were picked up by the European Virgin Detector. Infn researchers: ‘We’ve shed light on a hitherto unexplored cosmic landscape’
For astrophysicists and astronomers from all over the world, the arrival of the “two signals” opens an unprecedented stage of research: after the discovery of gravitational waves in 2016 and the arrival of multi-message astronomy, with the ability to follow cosmic events using machines that read signals of different types, we reach Now to the heart and doors open in search of new aspects of the universe. One hypothesis is that events such as merging black holes and neutron stars could occur in regions of the universe that have an extremely crowded and chaotic environment.
The identity of the two signs
The signals are called GW200105 and GW200115, and they are two codes that designate the year, month, and day of gravitational wave (GW) observation. The first, discovered on January 5, 2020, was emitted 900 million years ago when a black hole with a mass 8.9 times the mass of the Sun, like the cosmic Pac-Man, devoured a small star 1.9 times the mass of the Sun. The second signal, detected on January 15, 2020, dates back nearly a billion years and was emitted when a 5.7 solar-mass black hole swallowed a neutron star 1.5 times the mass of the Sun.
New technologies at play
The recording is also made possible by the most powerful tools available to researchers: initially, the advanced version of the Virgo detector from the European Gravitational Observatory (Ego), which is located in Italy in Cascina (Pisa) with funding from Infn, together with the French National Research Council worked (CNRS), and two advanced American detectors from Ligo (the Gravitational Wave Laser Interferometer Observatory), located in Livingston (Louisiana) and Hanford (Washington State); Now from Japan has been added Kagra (Kamioka gravitational wave detector) and they work together in unison as one giant antenna.
Researchers: “We are ready to further research the universe” “LIGO and Virgo continue to unveil catastrophic events never before seen, helping to shed light on a hitherto unexplored cosmic landscape,” said Giovanni Losordo, Virgo International Coordinator and Infinium Researcher. “Now we are updating the detectors with the goal – he added – to look further into the universe, for a deeper understanding of the universe we live in.”
