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The most massive black-hole merger yet detected was announced in 2025: two black holes, roughly 100 and 140 times the Sun's mass, collided and formed one of more than 225, sending out gravitational waves that reached Earth in November 2023.

LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (2025)

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The story behind the card

Gravitational waves are ripples in space itself, sent out when very heavy objects such as black holes spiral together. The signal, called GW231123 after its date, was caught on 23 November 2023 by the two LIGO detectors in the United States and announced in 2025 by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaboration, which also runs detectors in Italy and Japan. At least one of the pair falls in a 'mass gap' of roughly 60 to 130 solar masses: stars heavy enough to leave such black holes are expected to blow themselves apart completely instead. The likeliest answer is that each was born from an earlier merger, which also fits their unusually fast spin.

Türkçe oku
Şimdiye dek saptanan en büyük kara delik birleşmesi 2025'te duyuruldu: Güneş'in yaklaşık 100 ve 140 katı kütledeki iki kara delik çarpışıp 225 Güneş kütlesini aşan tek bir kara delik oluşturdu. Çarpışmanın yaydığı kütleçekim dalgaları Dünya'ya Kasım 2023'te ulaşmıştı.
LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (2025)

Kütleçekim dalgaları, kara delikler gibi çok ağır cisimler birbirinin çevresinde dönerek birleşirken uzayın kendisinde oluşan dalgalanmalardır. Adını tarihinden alan GW231123 sinyali, 23 Kasım 2023'te ABD'deki iki LIGO dedektörüne yakalandı ve 2025'te, İtalya ile Japonya'da da dedektörleri bulunan LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA işbirliği tarafından duyuruldu. İki kara delik bilim insanlarını şaşırtıyor: En az biri, Güneş'in yaklaşık 60 ile 130 katı arasındaki bir “kütle boşluğuna” düşüyor. Bu büyüklükte kara delik bırakacak kadar ağır yıldızların, geride hiçbir şey bırakmadan tümüyle parçalandığı düşünülür. En güçlü açıklama, iki kara deliğin de daha önceki birer birleşmeden doğmuş olması; olağanüstü hızlı dönmeleri de buna uyuyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: GW231123
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