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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Astronomers discover a 'lost world' of black hole mergers: 'It's the astronomical equivalent of uncovering an ancient civilization'

Black Hole Mergers Albert Einstein Daniel Williams LIGO Stephen Hawking Virgo
An illustration of two black holes colliding, each surrounded by glowing red-orange rings. An inset shows a diagram of "masses in the stellar graveyard" representing the collisions detected.

Astronomers have struck "black gold" — a treasure trove of black hole mergers. And the discovery was made by analyzing ripples in the very fabric of space and time, or spacetime, called gravitational waves.

This massive haul of mergers contained within the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogue-5.0 (GWTC-5), released on Tuesday (May 26), could change our understanding of how black holes meet and collide. The latest catalog contains 161 new gravitational wave signals launched by merging black holes "heard" by iconic gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), Virgo, and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) between April 2024 and the end of January 2025.

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