Breakthrough as largest merger of two black holes recorded

Scientists have detected the biggest ever merger of two black holes. Astronomers have recorded gravitational waves that have caused ripples within space and time.

The black holes, each more than 100 times the mass of the Sun, began circling each other long ago and finally slammed together to form an even more massive black hole about 10 billion light years from Earth.

The merger was detected by the gravitational wave detector network LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) on November 23rd 2023, during the fourth observing run of these three sensitive laser interferometers located in the US, Italy, and Japan.

To discuss more, Kieran is joined by Danielle Willcocks, a Telescope Operator from Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork.