GW190412

Gravitational-wave source · GWTC-2.1-confident

A black hole of about 36 solar masses, formed on 2019-04-12 when two black holes of roughly 28 and 9 solar masses spiralled together 2.3 billion light-years away. LIGO and Virgo felt the collision as ripples in spacetime.

GW190412, a gravitational-wave sourceComputed render
Computed render: general-relativistic ray-trace; colours mapped to a visible range. Not a photograph.
35.6 ☉
mass (the Sun = 1)
105 km
event-horizon radius (computed)
2.3 billion ly
from Earth
28+9 ☉
the two that merged

The two black holes that merged were about 28 (22–34) and 9 (8–11) solar masses. The remnant is 36 (31–40) 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 105 km in radius. The waves we detected had been travelling for 2.3 billion years before they reached us.

Black holes of similar mass
GW240930_035959GW240930_035959Gravitational-wave source35.5 ☉GW190925_232845GW190925_232845Gravitational-wave source34.9 ☉GW240527_230910GW240527_230910Gravitational-wave source36.4 ☉GW230927_153832GW230927_153832Gravitational-wave source36.5 ☉GW240920_073424GW240920_073424Gravitational-wave source36.7 ☉GW190512_180714GW190512_180714Gravitational-wave source34.3 ☉
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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