gravitational waves from a second pair of colliding black holes has
2 the
3 discovery from earlier this year that confirmed einstein's general theory of relativity. rochester institute of technology scientists contributed to the initial breakthrough and to the second discovery announced today by the laser interferometer gravitational-wave
4. the second gravitational wave was observed by the ligo scientific
5 and the virgo collaboration on dec. 26, 2015, toward the end of the first science run of the advanced ligo
6. the findings, which will appear in the journal physical review letters,
1 the new field of gravitational wave astronomy and reveal diversity of size and spin among black holes in the universe.
"this detection
7 our previous one," said richard o'shaughnessy, assistant professor in rit's school of mathematical sciences and a member of rit's ligo group. "we can now demonstrate with complete confidence that it wasn't a fluke because we saw something again. and, critically, we're going to see sources that are not just like the first sources but include a wide range."
o'shaughnessy and several of his colleagues in rit's center for computational relativity and gravitation are members of the ligo scientific collaboration. scientists at rit's center simulate extreme astrophysical
8 on supercomputers to predict and validate gravitational wave signals,
9 gravitational wave data and estimate astrophysical implications.
the landmark discovery occurred on sept. 14, 2015, and was publicly announced on feb. 11. the scientific breakthrough confirmed predictions in albert einstein's general theory of relativity and involved the
10 of black holes that weighed 29 and 36 solar masses.
the
11 black holes in this event weighed 14 and 8 times the mass of the sun and were one-third the size of the first pair of black holes ligo observed. the orbiting black holes
12 to form gravitational waves 1.4 billion years ago. the merger produced a single, more massive spinning black hole, weighing 21 times the mass of the sun. the impact converted the energy equivalent of the sun's mass into gravitational waves, or
13 in the
14 of space-time.