gravitational-waves

Gravitational-wave detection provides humanity with unique access to extreme astrophysical and cosmological phenomena. In space-based missions, however, the Doppler frequency pulling induced by orbital motion severely limits the precise extraction of gravitational-wave signals. This work shows that by introducing properly designed low-pass filters into established laser arm-locking systems, it is…

Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in spacetime. Their first direct detection in 2015 marked a revolutionary moment in astronomy. Today, we have a thorough understanding of signals that travel far from their sources through quiet, nearly empty space, such as those emitted when black holes merge. In this case, the wave can be considered a […]

Researchers discovered a closely orbiting pair of supermassive black holes in Markarian 501 by tracking two jets of particles. The binary system could merge within 100 years and may produce detectable gravitational waves. Current evidence indicates that nearly every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center, with a mass ranging from millions [...]

They punch above their weight The post See the Gravity Waves from a Super Typhoon appeared first on Nautilus .

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02856-z The mass spectrum of binary black-hole mergers has been expected to show a ‘mass gap’ above 45 solar masses, consistent with the physics of pair-instability supernovae. An extensive catalogue of gravitational-wave detections reveals a high-spin population above this threshold that probably results from repeated black…

A complete derivation of gravitational lensing and gravitational slingshot phe- nomena is constructed exclusively from the internal variational structure of a closed quartic Ψ/Γ functional without introducing fundamental spacetime curvature, grav- itational fields, geodesic postulates, externally imposed metrics, or Einstein equa- tions. Starting from the exact quartic variational object, the wor…

Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have found a new way to measure the mass of neighbouring galaxies using pulsars. Using the universe's most precise natural clocks it’s possible to detect tiny gravitational disturbances rippling through the Milky Way. By analysing 54 millisecond pulsars, the team directly measured the gravitational pull of both the Large Magellanic Cloud and …

Gravitational waves point to a multifaceted assembly line for the cosmic oddities The post The Many Ways to Build a Black Hole appeared first on Nautilus .

Of all the objects in the Universe, few are as perplexing as black holes. Over...

A record-setting collection of precisely measured gravitational waves reveals new information about how black holes behave and evolve

The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) detector network has a new trick up its sleeve to improve the instruments’ sensitivity to gravitational waves: it’s called Astrophysical Calibration and it plays a role similar to auto-tune in music production.

In December 2019, astronomers detected a one hour brightening of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a classic gravitational microlensing event. These occur when a compact object bends a distant the light of a distant star as it passes in front of it. The object responsible in this instance, named Phoebe, has a mass of roughly three times that of our Moon making it far too small to be a stellar…

A new statistical model reveals more details about the ringdown period of merging black holes.

_Internet Archive_. 2026Strip the empirical claim to what has actually been measured, and the inventory is short. Stars orbit something dark and very massive at the center of our galaxy; we have tracked S2's twenty-year ellipse around Sagittarius A* and can fit its motion to general relativity, within a few percentage points. X-ray binaries throughout the disk emit spectra consistent with accreti…

The count stands at 267. That is the number of confirmed gravitational-wave events pulled from detector data New! Sign up for our email newsletter on Substack.

Astronomers have unveiled the largest collection yet of gravitational wave detections, marking a major leap forward in our understanding of black holes and the universe itself. The new catalog, called GWTC-5, contains 161 newly confirmed signals from colliding black holes detected between April 2024 and January 2025. These discoveries were made by the international LVK […] The post Black Hole “Go…

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has today released its latest catalog of gravitational-wave detections. The data analysed for this update were collected by the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors and the Virgo detectors. They are the world’s premier observatory of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime. This catalog aggregates hundre…

In the heirarchy of black holes, intermediate mass black holes (IMBH) lie in between stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes. But the problem is that we've never found one. There have been hints, but nothing conclusive. Could gravitational microlensing of Fast Radio Bursts help find them?

Scientists used some of the most advanced plasma simulations ever created to uncover how the universe builds enormous magnetic fields out of turbulence. The discovery could reshape our understanding of stars, black holes, neutron star collisions, and dangerous solar eruptions.