While it may sound like the beginning of a science fiction story, this one appears to be true.

In late May of 2019, a team of research scientists from several institutions picked up on a signal. It came in the form of gravitational waves from deep in space.

The signal was just four brief wiggles on a screen, lasting a mere tenth of a second. But it took the team some time to fully analyze and understand the signal.

This week, the team announced their findings.

The signal they detected is evidence of a black hole with a mass about 142 times that of our sun.

What’s more, the black hole resulted from the merger of two other black holes – a binary black hole.

When the twin black holes completed their merger, they created a pulse of gravity waves. As a result, the energy of these waves was equivalent to 8 times that of our sun.

Like a stone creating ripples in a pond, the gravity waves traveled out into space.

In the U.S., the National Science Foundation has its LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) facility, and in Italy there exists a similar facility called Virgo.

Both facilities make use of a laser interferometer – essentially a system that creates a pair lasers 3 to 4 kilometers (several miles) in length – which can detect the fine ripples of gravity waves.

Labeled GW190521, the signal was picked up by both facilities.

Researchers have determined that it originated at a location so far away that the waves, traveling at the speed of light, took the last half of the age of the Universe to arrive here.

The post Massive Black Hole detected – Long Ago and Far, Far Away appeared first on CitizenNewsWire.