LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
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Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#2One question I've had about gravitational wave detections that I haven't yet been able to find an answer to is what is the mechanism by which the mass of an orbiting black hole pair converts its mass into a gravitational wave? Presumably the mass of the black holes is comprised of matter (in whatever form that may be) and kinetic energy. Is the gravitational wave energy while the two objects orbit purely a conversion of kinetic energy to gravitational wave energy or is some of the mass lost too? What about when they finally collide? If in this case 1 solar mass of matter was converted into gravitational energy then by what process?
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#3> Dubbed GW170608, the latest discovery was produced by the merger of two relatively light black holes, 7 and 12 times the mass of the sun, at a distance of about a billion light-years from Earth. The merger left behind a final black hole 18 times the mass of the sun, meaning that energy equivalent to about 1 solar mass was emitted as gravitational waves during the collision.
I wonder if one would experience any macroscopic effects from the gravitational waves if one were close enough to the black holes during the merger. Or would one have to be so close that tidal effects from the black holes' gravity would mask any of those effects?
I ask because one solar mass worth of energy sounds like ... a lot. At least to me as an astronomical layperson.
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
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Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#5> Dubbed GW170608, the latest discovery was produced by the merger of two relatively light black holes, 7 and 12 times the mass of the sun, at a distance of about a billion light-years from Earth. The merger left behind a final black hole 18 times the mass of the sun, meaning that energy equivalent to about 1 solar mass was emitted as gravitational waves during the collision. I wonder if one would experience any macr…
You're right: A solar mass is a spectacular quantity of energy.
One would need to be very close to the merger to experience any macroscopic effects from gravitational waves alone, if at all. Spacetime is very stiff.
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#6One question I've had about gravitational wave detections that I haven't yet been able to find an answer to is what is the mechanism by which the mass of an orbiting black hole pair converts its mass into a gravitational wave? Presumably the mass of the black holes is comprised of matter (in whatever form that may be) and kinetic energy. Is the gravitational wave energy while the two objects orbit purely a conversion…
Mass is energy. As I understand it, the waves are created because of the rapid acceleration of large masses, either black holes or neutron stars. These waves do transmit energy and the final resulting body will be less massive at least partially because of that.
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#7> Dubbed GW170608, the latest discovery was produced by the merger of two relatively light black holes, 7 and 12 times the mass of the sun, at a distance of about a billion light-years from Earth. The merger left behind a final black hole 18 times the mass of the sun, meaning that energy equivalent to about 1 solar mass was emitted as gravitational waves during the collision. I wonder if one would experience any macr…
Apparently from 1 AU you might just be able to hear it! Even that close the stretching and squishing would be on the order of micrometers but the eardrum might be able to pick it up. The frequency would be comfortably in the audible range as well. [1]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/45n0sz/how_clos...
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#8> Dubbed GW170608, the latest discovery was produced by the merger of two relatively light black holes, 7 and 12 times the mass of the sun, at a distance of about a billion light-years from Earth. The merger left behind a final black hole 18 times the mass of the sun, meaning that energy equivalent to about 1 solar mass was emitted as gravitational waves during the collision. I wonder if one would experience any macr…
Apparently from 1 AU you might just be able to hear it! Even that close the stretching and squishing would be on the order of micrometers but the eardrum might be able to pick it up. The frequency would be comfortably in the audible range as well. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/45n0sz/how_clos...
Huh. IIRC, black hole mergers are also a likely source of short gamma ray bursts. So I suspect at 1 AU, one would need a lot of shielding to not get fried by the gamma rays.
EDIT: What I meant to say was: It would probably be quite awesome to experience such an event up close, provided it is possible to do so safely. ;-)
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently from 1 AU you might just be able to hear it! Even that close the stretching and squishing would be on the order of micrometers but the eardrum might be able to pick it up. The frequency would be comfortably in the audible range as well. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/45n0sz/how_clos...
Huh. IIRC, black hole mergers are also a likely source of short gamma ray bursts. So I suspect at 1 AU, one would need a lot of shielding to not get fried by the gamma rays. EDIT: What I meant to say was: It would probably be quite awesome to experience such an event up close, provided it is possible to do so safely. ;-)
I believe that black hole mergers are dark in the entire electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. This is why the recent binary neutron star merger was so groundbreaking -- it emitted both gravitational waves and a broad spectrum of EM waves.
Indeed, though, it would be awesome to witness the collision and resulting gwaves personally, if such a thing was possible :)
Re: LIGO and Virgo announce the detection of a black hole binary merger
#10Interesting
This was a couple of days days before Virgo got online AND one of the Ligo detectors was undergoing a noise modelling test (its mirrors were being vibrated at the time)