The discovery of the largest black hole merger ever detected could change how scientists understand black hole formation. The event is named GW231123, detected using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a system of identical technology located in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington. This technology detected the merger through mild ripples in space-time, or gravitational waves, occurring when black holes collide.According to Caltech's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves in his theory of relativity in 1915. .He discovered gravitational waves were ripples originating from cataclysmic events in distant universes. In space gravity is a stretching of space and time, forcing objects to move through curved spaces. When objects move very rapidly — like spinning black holes — curved space forms ripples spreading outwards — gravitational waves. Reported by CTV News, Einstein believed that these waves were too weak to be detected by human technology. Not only was Einstein right about these gravitational waves, he was also right about the faintness of the gravitational waves from the collision.These gravitational waves that emitted during mergers are “ridiculously weak,” claims Mark Hannam, head of Gravity Exploration Institute at Cardiff University in the UK and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. .On the LIGO technology, Hannam says, "We’re observing the most violent and extreme events in the universe through the smallest measurements we can make."GW231123 is not just special because it is the largest black hole collision scientists have ever detected."The individual black holes are special. They lie in a range of masses where we do not expect them to be produced from dying stars," remarks Charlie Hoy research fellow at University of Plymouth and another member of the LIGO collaboration. Hannam says black holes "do not give off any light or any other electromagnetic radiation, so any kind of regular telescope is unable to observe them."It is still uncertain, but estimated GW231123 is 12 billion light-years away. .Normally, black holes form by "stars running out of fuel, dying, and then collapsing," says Hannam.“But there’s a range of masses where we think it’s not possible for black holes to form that way. And the black holes from GW231123 live bang in the middle of that (mass) gap. So there’s a question of how they formed and that makes them pretty interesting,” he points out. The study explains if these massive black holes were the result of previous mergers, it could explain why it looks like they weren't formed from dying stars. Dan Wilkins, a research scientist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, says if this hypothesis were confirmed it would suggest the existence of another population of black holes found in the centers of galaxies.
