Astronomers capture first detailed image of black hole collision

Astronomers Observe Black Hole Collision With Unprecedented Detail, Confirming Einstein and Hawking's Theories, CE Report quotes Kosova Press.

Astronomers have observed a collision between two black holes in never-before-seen detail, offering the clearest picture yet of these cosmic phenomena. The event, named GW250114, was detected in January via the LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, using two instruments located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.

LIGO detected gravitational waves — faint ripples in spacetime — caused by the merger of two black holes, each with a mass between 30–35 times that of the Sun. The resulting black hole has 63 solar masses and rotates at 100 times per second.

This observation confirms two major predictions:

Albert Einstein's 1915 prediction of gravitational waves, part of his General Theory of Relativity.

Stephen Hawking’s 1971 theorem: the surface area of a resulting black hole must be equal to or larger than the combined surface areas of the original black holes.

The research was led by Dr. Maximiliano Isi, astrophysicist at Columbia University and the Flatiron Institute. The study was published in Physical Review Letters.

Black holes, though mysterious and complex, are mathematically simple. Scientists believe they can be fully described by just two numbers: mass and spin.

To test this, researchers analyzed the “ringing” — gravitational waves emitted as the final black hole settles into shape, similar to how a bell vibrates when struck.