Third gravitational wave detection puts new spin on black holes

For the third time, physicists have detected a gravitational wave: a tiny ripple in the fabric of space-time.

Like the two previous detections, it came from two colliding black holes, but this pair was much further away and may have been spinning in different directions.
Key points

Third confirmed gravitational wave detected on January 4, 2017 Wave produced by two black holes 3 billion light-years away — twice the distance of previous discoveries Search is now on to find gravitational waves from other sources

The discovery, reported today in the journal Physical Review Letters, has important implications for our understanding of black holes, dark matter and the early Universe.

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If two black holes are spinning in the same direction would the merger be a smoother transition than two black holes spinning in the opposite direction?

I wonder how long we have to wait for three black holes to merge?

Tau.Neutrino said:

If two black holes are spinning in the same direction would the merger be a smoother transition than two black holes spinning in the opposite direction?

Could they repel each other I wonder

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

If two black holes are spinning in the same direction would the merger be a smoother transition than two black holes spinning in the opposite direction?

Could they repel each other I wonder

I’m not sure, there could be special conditions where black holes might repel each other, but indications are that they attract.

Will less massive objects gravitational waves be detectable, say stars or even large planets as the field of science develops and our equipment becomes more sensitive

Will less massive objects gravitational waves be detectable, say stars or even large planets as the field of science develops and our equipment becomes more sensitive

Tau.Neutrino said:

If two black holes are spinning in the same direction would the merger be a smoother transition than two black holes spinning in the opposite direction?

No difference, sort of.

I really don’t know how we calculate how rapidly two black holes merge. The time is dominated by the ellipticity of the orbits around one another rather than the spin. The spin will have a little influence through the Lens-thirring effect, I suspect.

Stellar mass black holes. Known from local X-ray studies.

And from billion-light-year-away black hole mergers detected by LIGO (three confirmed & one tentative).

Tau.Neutrino said:

I wonder how long we have to wait for three black holes to merge?

Well, I won’t be alive to see it happen.
A billion years perhaps?
Unless we learn to make black holes before then.