Space is filled with astronomical titans so massive that we are simply unable to
comprehend these behemoths roaming the infinite abyss of space that that power
is enormous that power is can be greater than all of the power that is coming out from all the stars
in that galaxy it can be the biggest source of power bigger than everything else in a galaxy
coming from this spinning black hole whose size is like a small piece of the solar system while
we are largely in the dark when it comes to the wonders of the universe thanks to recent advances
in technology we have been able to observe the unobservable we're able to collect data of all
sorts that tell us exactly how everything came to be and although we are just scrubbing the surface
of this fascinating and deep history we have made a major discovery in recent years that will help
us write another chapter in the celestial tome of the universe welcome to Factnomenal
today we will unravel a major discovery that has changed the way we look at the universe
an unstoppable force meets an immovable object we have long understood at least in theory what
happens when two black holes crash into one another thanks to the revolutionary theory of
relativity by Einstein astronomers and theorists alike have been able to predict these magnificent
clashes as well as create accurate models that depict such massive events the first official
detection of the merging of two black holes happened not long ago it was the middle of autumn
in 2015 when the LIGO laser interferometers in Washington and Louisiana picked up the
gravitational wave at the time it was a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe
and many scientists and theorists were ecstatic for what the future of this field could bring
the late professor himself Stephen Hawking had this to say after the astronomical revolution
gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the universe
the ability to detect them has the potential to revolutionize astronomy this discovery is
the first detection of a black hole binary system and the first observation of black holes merging
on the other hand although a few collisions of neutron stars have been detected
it is estimated that within our very own galaxy neutron star collisions happen approximately
once every 50,000 years although the data is rather slim some believe that after two
or more neutron stars in a multi-solar system smash into each other it triggers the formation
of a black hole and thus could explain how these mysterious and dense objects are born
the crash between a black hole and a neutron star has been theorized for ages but we never
truly had any confirmations until the beginning of 2020 the day that shook the world of astronomy
a galactic battle for the ages though a similar collision was detected on August 14
2019 scientists were unable to confirm whether this event captured by the virgo observatory in
Italy and the league of scientific collaboration in the united states
was indeed a clash between a neutron star and a black hole this collision was labeled GW190814
and the main reason that we are unsure if this is a black hole neutron star collision
is because as it stands our classification for a stellar black hole is an object
that has between 3 and 10 solar masses while a neutron star is classified as having somewhere
between 1.2 to 2 solar masses we know for sure that one of the objects in GW190814
was undoubtedly over 5 solar masses however the second object seemed to only be 2.6 solar masses
so what does this mean it meant that scientists didn't know for sure if the second object was a
black hole or a neutron star as it could have fit the bill for either entity though we may never
know if GW190814 depicts this type of merger what we know for sure is that surprisingly confirmation
of this event was observed not once but twice within 10 days these readings were captured by
the very same observatories in the U.S. and Italy on January 5th and 15th of 2020 the two events
were subsequently labeled GW200105 and GW200115 after the year month and day they were found
details of the detection the data of the first event gw200105 suggests that approximately 900
million years ago there was a collision between a neutron star roughly twice the size of our sun
with a massive black hole estimated to be over nine times the size of our sun
the second event captured nearly 10 days later GW200115 shows a collision between
two massively dense objects that happens somewhere between million and 1.5 billion light years away
it is estimated that both the neutron star and the black hole of this collision were smaller than the
first event the neutron star being approximately one and a half times the size of our sun while the
black hole was over six times the size of our sun when an event like this occurs between two massive
objects clash there are ripples created in the space-time continuum that travel throughout the
rest of the universe think of a drop of water crashing on a pond at the center where the drop
of water landed the ripples created are huge and as the waves travel outward the ripples
become smaller and smaller until they disappear completely to the naked eye however just because
your eyes can't see these ripples anymore doesn't mean that they have disappeared there are atomic
echoes left of this event that could be measured with very sophisticated and sensitive machinery
this is in all essence how we're able to measure these tiny waves that have traveled millions of
light years away throughout the universe to put it into perspective these waves captured
by the observatories in Italy and the us are not meters long not even centimeters when these waves
arrive to earth they measure no more than one thousandth of the diameter of a proton
the precision of our equipment is impeccable and it will only get better with time which will in
turn help us capture more astronomical events of this magnitude a missing glow although it
may seem that our data is sufficient to be able to recreate a model that could help us visualize
exactly how an event like this would occur there is still one huge piece of the puzzle missing
light we have been unable to capture any signs of light emitted by colossal events like this
this has puzzled astronomers and astrophysicists alike although they were unable to match either
of these new gravitational wave detections with observations of light waves it didn't necessarily
mean there wasn't any light emitted the detection of light waves is much less precise so scientists
were only able to narrow down the location of the source to about 17 of the sky which meant that
scientists were looking at an area the equivalent of 2 900 full moons these were not events where
the black holes munched on the neutron stars like the cookie monster and flung bits and pieces about
said Patrick Brady a physicist at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
and current spokesperson of the ligo scientific collaboration it appears that after a neutron star
comes close to the gravitational field of a black hole it is not disintegrated or torn apart slowly
if that were the case it would produce light waves that could have been observed by now
instead it appears that the black hole literally swallows the neutron star in a matter of seconds
leaving nothing behind to see in its wake no one truly knows for sure how neutron stars fair after
these unparalleled collisions but scientists are hopeful LIGO's next observing run is set to
begin in mid to late 2022 meaning that we might be able to shed some light on this gripping mystery
hope for the future we might have answers very soon witnessing the death of a neutron star is the
holy grail of modern nuclear physics matter inside a neutron star exists at densities completely
unknown to us it is believed that pressures inside this star might dissolve neutrons into a plasma
of fundamental particles this means that neutron stars of a certain mass appear smaller than they
actually are if we could gather more data from gravitational waves produced as the star spiraled
into the black hole it may reveal the star size and the consistency of the matter within it
more precisely it might give us a glimpse into the exotic substance sometimes called neutronium,
a theorized element composed entirely of neutrons but perhaps that is a subject for another video
let's work on solving one mystery at a time thank you all for watching I hope you have learned
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