On The Space Show for Wednesday, 10 September 2025:
Merging Black Holes and Gravitational Waves:
The Space Show is in conversation with Prof. Eric Thrane, School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University, Clayton.
When scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) recently announced they had seen a bizarre pair of rapidly spinning black holes, the astrophysics community agreed it defied expectations — and may rewrite our understanding of the universe.
The announcement — “GW231123: A Binary Black Hole Merger” — describes unusually large black holes essentially smashing into each other. Each weighs more than 100 times more than our sun, and are spinning, where they would be expected to rotate more slowly, taking them to near the limits of what scientists understand to be physically possible.
The questions now are: How did these black holes form? Why are they so massive? And why are they spinning so fast?