Scientists have this week detected the largest ever recorded collision of spinning black holes.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime as two black holes smashed into each other billions of light years away from Earth.
Monash University professor Eric Thrane is one of the researchers involved in the discovery.
The Monash School of Physics and Astronomy professor said the discovery raises a number of questions.
“How did these black holes form? Why are they so massive, and how did they come to spin so fast?” he said.
“This gravitational-wave event is creating excitement in the astrophysics community for two reasons. First, the black holes have set the records as the most massive yet seen by LIGO. They both tip the scales at over one hundred times the mass of our Sun.
“Second, LIGO scientists have determined that the black holes were both spinning incredibly fast. This came as a surprise since merging black holes were not expected to spin so quickly.”
