The historic finding comes about a decade after the first detection of gravitational waves performed by a famous instrument known as LIGO.

Scientists have for the first time ever succeeded in getting some data on a newborn black hole that was sent hurtling off into space after two larger ones collided together and “birthed” it.

The younger black hole, the product of a cataclysmic cosmic event known as a black hole merger, was first spotted in 2019. Now, about six years later, a team of international researchers led by the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain managed to measure its speed and direction, according to a press release.

Merger, though, may be an understated word to describe the event that created the black hole. Rather, it was a collision between two larger black holes that created the violent recoil-like forces that shot the new formation out of the surrounding host galaxy.

The researchers were able to glean more information about the event by analyzing the gravitational waves – distortions in space-time caused by powerful cosmic events – produced as the black hole bounced away from the site of its parents’ rendezvous. The historic finding comes about a decade after the first detection of gravitational waves performed by a famous instrument known as LIGO.

Here’s what to know about gravitational waves, and how studying them helped scientists understand more about a black hole that managed to “kick away” from two larger ones that formed it.

What are black holes?

Supermassive black holes, regions of space where the pull of gravity is so intense that even light doesn’t have enough energy to escape, are often considered terrors of the known universe.

When any object gets close to a supermassive black hole, it’s typically ensnared in a powerful gravitational pull. That’s due to the event horizon – a theoretical boundary known as the “point of no return” where light and other radiation can no longer escape.

As their name implies, supermassive black holes are enormous (Sagittarius A*, located at the center of our Milky Way, is 4.3 million times bigger than the sun.) They’re also scarily destructive and perplexing sources of enigma for astronomers who have long sought to learn more about entities that humans can’t really get anywhere near.

Gravitational waves help measure black hole ‘kick’

The merger, which involved two black holes of different sizes, was first observed in 2019 by the LIGO gravitational wave detector in the U.S. and the Virgo detector in Italy.

Now, a team of international astronomers has succeeded in deciphering the gravitational wave signal, GW190412, to determine more about the collision and the resulting event that sent an infant black hole hurtling through space.

When two black holes merge into one, the newly formed behemoth can send a ripple of gravitational waves in all directions, causing a remnant of the formation to “kick” away. The event, which the researchers also referred to as a “black hole recoil,” is among the most dramatic outcomes that can be caused by such a merger, the team said.

In this case, the new, smaller black hole that formed from the collision shot through space at more than 31 miles per second – fast enough to escape its host galaxy and the surrounding globular cluster of stars bound together by gravity.

By studying gravitational waves related to the event, the researchers were able to observe an astrophysical phenomenon that does not emit light.

“It’s a remarkable demonstration of what gravitational waves can do,” study co-author Koustav Chandra, an astrophysicist at Pennsylvania State University, said in a statement.

The research was published Sept. 9 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

What are gravitational waves? LIGO detects 1st in 2015

First theorized in 1916 by Albert Einstein, gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time created during some of the universe’s most powerful events, including the merging or collision of supermassive black holes.

But because gravitational waves are so weak, it took nearly a century before scientists had developed technology sensitive enough to detect them.

That happened in 2015 when U.S.-based LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) previously made history when it made the first-ever detection of gravitational waves.

In the years since, LIGO, funded by the National Science Foundation, joined forces with gravitational wave detectors Virgo in Italy and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan. The collaboration has fueled the discovery of more than 300 black hole mergers during surveillance of the Milk Way galaxy.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com