GW170729

Gravitational-wave source · GWTC-2.1-confident

A black hole of about 80 solar masses, formed on 2017-07-29 when two black holes of roughly 55 and 30 solar masses spiralled together 8.1 billion light-years away. LIGO and Virgo felt the collision as ripples in spacetime.

GW170729, a gravitational-wave sourceComputed render
Computed render: general-relativistic ray-trace; colours mapped to a visible range. Not a photograph.
80.3 ☉
mass (the Sun = 1)
237 km
event-horizon radius (computed)
8.1 billion ly
from Earth
55+30 ☉
the two that merged

The two black holes that merged were about 55 (42–67) and 30 (20–42) solar masses. The remnant is 80 (70–94) solar masses. Values in parentheses are the 90% credible ranges from LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA (GWTC).

Its event horizon, the edge past which nothing returns, spans about 237 km in radius. The waves we detected had been travelling for 8.1 billion years before they reached us.

Black holes of similar mass
GW240527_183429GW240527_183429Gravitational-wave source80.0 ☉GW230630_125806GW230630_125806Gravitational-wave source80.0 ☉GW231119_075248GW231119_075248Gravitational-wave source79.0 ☉GW230928_215827GW230928_215827Gravitational-wave source79.0 ☉GW240514_121713GW240514_121713Gravitational-wave source78.9 ☉GW241229_155844GW241229_155844Gravitational-wave source82.0 ☉
Source: Gravitational-Wave Open Science Center (GWTC-2.1-confident), LIGO Virgo KAGRA. CC BY 4.0. See data & analysis for full sourcing.
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