Black Holes Merge with Strongly Inclined Rotation Axes
Two unusual gravitational-wave events discovered by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration enhance our understanding of black holes, their formation, and particle physics.
Two gravitational wave signals explain why the heavier black holes of the causal pairs did not originate in a stellar explosion.
Artist’s impression of two coalescing black holes.
© Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of TechnologyMany binary black holes once were binary star systems, where two stars, each more massive than our Sun, orbited each other, one after the other exploded as a supernova, and collapsed into black holes.
This origin story would usually produce slowly rotating black holes with their equators aligned with the binary system’s orbital plane.
Author’s summary: Unusual black hole mergers shed light on their formation.
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