{"id":184343,"date":"2025-09-27T02:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/184343\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T02:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:29:07","slug":"ripples-in-space-time-confirm-century-old-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/184343\/","title":{"rendered":"Ripples in Space-Time Confirm Century-Old Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Black<\/a>When two black holes collide and merge, they release gravitational waves. These waves can be detected by sensitive instruments on Earth, allowing scientists to determine the mass and spin of the black holes. The clearest black hole merger signal yet, named GW250114 and recorded by LIGO in January 2025, offers new insights into these mysterious objects. Credit: Maggie Chiang for Simons Foundation<\/p>\n

New observations of two black holes merging have confirmed predictions made decades ago by Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Roy Kerr.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, scientists first picked up ripples in the fabric of space-time<\/a>, known as gravitational waves<\/a>, produced by the collision of two black holes. Now, aided by improved instrumentation and a stroke of good fortune, a newly observed black hole merger offers the most definitive view so far of how black holes behave \u2014 and, in the process, provides long-sought confirmation of key predictions by Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.<\/p>\n

The latest measurements come from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), with analyses led by astrophysicists Maximiliano Isi and Will Farr of the Flatiron Institute\u2019s Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City. The findings illuminate black hole<\/a> properties and the underlying structure of space-time, suggesting possible points of contact between quantum physics and Einstein\u2019s general relativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the clearest view yet of the nature of black holes,\u201d says Isi, who is also an assistant professor at Columbia University. \u201cWe\u2019ve found some of the strongest evidence yet that astrophysical black holes are the black holes predicted from Albert Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings were recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration.<\/p>\n

Black Holes and Gravitational Waves<\/p>\n

For massive stars, black holes mark the final step in their life cycles. Their gravity is so intense that even light cannot escape. When two black holes collide, they warp space itself and generate gravitational waves that travel outward across the cosmos, similar to the way a bell rings after being struck.<\/p>\n

Those space-deforming ripples, called gravitational waves, can tell scientists a great deal about the objects that created them. Just as a large iron bell makes different sounds than a smaller aluminum bell, the \u201csound\u201d a black hole merger makes is specific to the properties of the black holes involved.<\/p>\n

\"Ringing<\/a>An infographic explaining new insights into the properties of black holes. Credit: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda\/Simons Foundation<\/p>\n

Scientists can detect gravitational waves with special instruments at observatories such as LIGO in the United States, Virgo in Italy, and KAGRA in Japan. These instruments carefully measure how long it takes a laser to travel a given path. As gravitational waves stretch and compress space-time, the length of the instrument, and thus the light\u2019s travel time, changes minutely. By measuring those tiny changes with great precision, scientists can use them to determine the black holes\u2019 characteristics.<\/p>\n

The newly reported gravitational waves were found to be created by a merger that formed a black hole with the mass of 63 suns and spinning at 100 revolutions per second. The findings come 10 years after LIGO made the first black hole merger detection. Since that landmark discovery, improvements in equipment and techniques have enabled scientists to get a much clearer look at these space-shaking events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new pair of black holes are almost twins to the historic first detection in 2015,\u201d Isi says. \u201cBut the instruments are much better, so we\u2019re able to analyze the signal in ways that just weren\u2019t possible 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

With these new signals, Isi and his colleagues got a complete look at the collision from the moment the black holes first careened into each other until the final reverberations as the merged black hole settled into its new state, which happened only milliseconds after first contact.<\/p>\n

Previously, the final reverberations were difficult to capture, as by that point, the ringing of the black hole would be very faint. As a result, scientists couldn\u2019t separate the ringing of the collision from that of the final black hole itself.<\/p>\n

Unlocking the Ringing of Black Holes<\/p>\n

In 2021, Isi led a study showcasing a cutting-edge method<\/a> that he, Farr, and others developed to isolate certain frequencies \u2014 or \u2018tones\u2019 \u2014 using data from the 2015 black hole merger. This method proved powerful, but the 2015 measurements weren\u2019t clear enough to confirm key predictions about black holes. With the new, more precise measurements, though, Isi and his colleagues were more confident they had successfully isolated the milliseconds-long signal of the final, settled black hole. This enabled more unambiguous tests of the nature of black holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen milliseconds sounds really short, but our instruments are so much better now that this is enough time for us to really analyze the ringing of the final black hole,\u201d Isi says. \u201cWith this new detection, we have an exquisitely detailed view of the signal both before and after the black hole merger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gravitational<\/a>A fleeting secondary tone was detected in the recent gravitational wave signal, offering a rare chance to test the Kerr solution, which describes a rotating black hole using only mass and spin. Excitingly, the mass and spin values from this overtone matched those from the fundamental tone. If they had differed, it would imply that additional properties are necessary to describe a black hole, but a match confirms that \u2014 at least for this black hole \u2014 no other details are needed. Credit: Simons Foundation<\/p>\n

The new observations allowed scientists to test a key conjecture dating back decades that black holes are fundamentally simple objects. In 1963, physicist Roy Kerr used Einstein\u2019s general relativity to mathematically describe black holes with one equation. The equation showed that astrophysical black holes can be described by just two characteristics: spin and mass. With the new, higher-quality data, the scientists were able to measure the frequency and duration of the ringing of the merged black hole more precisely than ever before. This allowed them to see that, indeed, the merged black hole is a simple object, described by just its mass and spin.<\/p>\n

The observations were also used to test a foundational idea proposed by Stephen Hawking called Hawking\u2019s area theorem. It states that the size of a black hole\u2019s event horizon \u2014 the line past which nothing, not even light, can return \u2014 can only ever grow. Testing whether this theorem applies requires exceptional measurements of black holes before and after their merger. Following the first black hole merger detection in 2015, Hawking wondered if the merger signature could be used to confirm his theorem. At the time, no one thought it was possible.<\/p>\n

By 2019, a year after Hawking\u2019s death, methods had improved enough that a first tentative confirmation came using techniques developed by Isi, Farr, and colleagues. With four times better resolution, the new data gives scientists much more confidence that Hawking\u2019s theorem is correct.<\/p>\n

Black Holes and the Arrow of Time<\/p>\n

In confirming Hawking\u2019s theorem, the results also hint at connections to the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that a property that measures a system\u2019s disorder, known as entropy, must increase, or at least remain constant, over time. Understanding the thermodynamics of black holes could lead to advances in other areas of physics, including quantum gravity, which aims to merge general relativity with quantum physics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really profound that the size of a black hole\u2019s event horizon behaves like entropy,\u201d Isi says. \u201cIt has very deep theoretical implications and means that some aspects of black holes can be used to mathematically probe the true nature of space and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many suspect that future black hole merger detections will only reveal more about the nature of these objects. In the next decade, detectors are expected to become 10 times more sensitive than today, allowing for more rigorous tests of black hole characteristics.<\/p>\n

\u201cListening to the tones emitted by these black holes is our best hope for learning about the properties of the extreme space-times they produce,\u201d says Farr, who is also a professor at Stony Brook University. \u201cAnd as we build more and better gravitational wave detectors, the precision will continue to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long this field has been pure mathematical and theoretical speculation,\u201d Isi says. \u201cBut now we\u2019re in a position of actually seeing these amazing processes in action, which highlights how much progress there\u2019s been \u2014 and will continue to be \u2014 in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cGW250114: Testing Hawking\u2019s Area Law and the Kerr Nature of Black Holes\u201d by A.\u2009G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adamcewicz, S. Adhicary, D. Adhikari, N. Adhikari, R.\u2009X. Adhikari, et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations), 10 September 2025, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103\/kw5g-d732<\/a><\/p>\n

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