Puzzling Merger of Black Holes

In News

An unusual compact object has been detected by the LSC.

In-Detail

• The LIGO Scientific and VIRGO Collaborations (LSC) detected an unusual compact object.
• The object mass falls in between a typical black hole and a neutron star.
• This puzzling event was registered on August 14, 2019, by the LIGO and VIRGO detectors.
• The detectors have detected mergers of black holes, pairs of neutron stars and black hole-neutron star duo. This experience and the prediction theory shows that the present merger detected is a puzzle.
• The signalling waveform showed that the primary object in the merger had a mass of about 23.2 times that of the Sun and the secondary object had a mass of about 2.6 times the solar mass.
• They both joined to form a black hole of mass 25.6 times the Sun’s mass and radiation of about 0.2 solar mass. The mass ratio is approximately 1:9.
• At 23.2 solar masses, the primary is a black hole and the secondary object is a dubious spot.
• The observations show that the object is too light to be a black hole and too heavy to be a neutron.
• The current observational uncertainties cannot confirm whether there is a mass gap between the maximum mass of the neutron and minimum mass of a black hole.