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Cosmic Collision 1.3 Billion Light-Years Away Validates Einstein and Hawking's Theories
10 Sep
Summary
- Merger of two black holes detected as gravitational waves
- Observation supports theories of Einstein and Hawking
- Merged black hole 63 times the mass of the sun, spinning at 100 revolutions per second
On September 10, 2025, researchers announced the detection of a momentous cosmic event: the merger of two black holes 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. This observation has provided the best look yet at such an extreme configuration of space, time, and gravity.
The merger involved two black holes, one about 34 times the mass of the sun and the other about 32 times the sun's mass. They orbited each other at nearly the speed of light before colliding in a fraction of a second, leaving behind a single black hole around 63 times the mass of the sun that was spinning at approximately 100 revolutions per second.
The merger unleashed a tremendous amount of energy that radiated outward as gravitational waves, an amount equivalent to pulverizing three sun-sized stars. These waves were detected on January 14, 2025, at research sites in the United States as part of the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
The findings from this observation lend strong support to the theories of renowned physicists Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The researchers were able to validate Hawking's hypothesis that the total surface area of black holes should never decrease, as well as provide the most direct evidence yet that black holes are the simple objects foreseen in Einstein's theory of general relativity.
