Saturday, 8 November, 2025
LIGO Detects Record Black Hole Merger, Challenges Stellar Models
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration announced the detection of GW231123, the most massive black hole merger ever observed. The collision created a final black hole of approximately 225 solar masses. Crucially, the component black holes' high masses and rapid spin fall within the Pair-Instability Mass Gap, a region where standard stellar evolution theory suggests black holes should not form.
Read full story at Research Matters