Gravitational-wave events

gravitational wave event

GW170817 was a gravitational wave (GW) observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017, originating within the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 4993, about 140 million light years away. The wave was produced by the last moments of the inspiral of a binary pair of neutron stars, ending with their merger. It is the first GW detection to be definitively correlated with any electromagnetic observation.

GW190521 (initially S190521g) was a gravitational wave signal resulting from the merger of two black holes. It was possibly associated with a coincident flash of light; if this association is correct, the merger would have occurred near a third supermassive black hole. The event was observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 21 May 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC, and published on 2 September 2020. The event had a Luminosity distance of 17 billion light years away from Earth, within a 765 deg2 area towards one of two roughly antipodal areas of the sky, one centered around Coma Berenices and the oth

GW170814 was a gravitational wave signal from two merging black holes, detected by the LIGO and Virgo observatories on 14 August 2017. On 27 September 2017, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced the observation of the signal, the fourth confirmed event after GW150914, GW151226 and GW170104. It was the first binary black hole merger detected by LIGO and Virgo together.

GW170104 was a gravitational wave signal detected by the LIGO observatory on 4 January 2017. On 1 June 2017, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced that they had reliably verified the signal, making it the third such signal announced, after GW150914 and GW151226, and fourth overall.

GW151226 was a gravitational wave signal detected by the LIGO observatory on 25 December 2015 local time (26 Dec 2015 UTC). On 15 June 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced that they had verified the signal, making it the second such signal confirmed, after GW150914, which had been announced four months earlier the same year, and the third gravitational wave signal detected.

GW170608 was a gravitational wave event that was recorded on 8 June 2017 at 02:01:16.49 UTC by Advanced LIGO. It originated from the merger of two black holes with masses of and . The resulting black hole had a mass around 18 solar masses. About one solar mass was converted to energy in the form of gravitational waves.

GW250114 was a black hole merger detected by LIGO on January 14, 2025. It generated the clearest gravitational wave signal received to date, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of about 77–80, far clearer than the 42 SNR of the previous best gravitational wave observation (of GW230814). It identified (with a 4.1σ level of significance) the first overtone of the Kerr solution for a rotating black hole. The findings were corroborated in a September 2025 scientific article.

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