It may have happened some 3 billion light-years away, but we’re still feeling the aftershocks of the latest cosmic clash. Scientists announced this week that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has again detected gravitational waves, or ripples in space and time, caused by the collision of two black holes in outer space. This extraterrestrial merger formed an enormous pit of darkness, with some 49 times the mass of the sun. According to data picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the two black holes that smashed together some 3 billion light-years from here were large in themselves, measuring 19 and 32 times the mass of the sun. But when they merged, they created a monster. Such a dramatic merger may seem alarming, but it appears we should start getting used to it. This is the third black-hole collision scientists have reported in less than two years, suggesting such events might occur quite frequently in the dista...
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