Gravitational wave detector confirms theories of Einstein and Hawking: 'This is the clearest view yet of the nature of black holes'

An illustration of GW250114, a powerful collision between two black holes observed in gravitational waves by LIGO, as seen from one of the black holes involved.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is celebrating 10 years of cutting-edge gravitational wave science by confirming predictions made by physics luminaries Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Roy Kerr — and potentially revealing a path toward a theory of quantum gravity.

LIGO achieved this latest milestone by detecting gravitational waves, or tiny ripples in spacetime. The existence of gravitational waves was first predicted by Einstein in his 1915 theory of gravity, general relativity. The newly detected ripples resulted from the collision of two black holes, each estimated to have a mass around 32 times that of the sun.