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astronerdika.bsky.social
Mirror, mirror, reflecting our [LASER] beam...
What is the loudest [gravitational wave] signal that we've seen?

It’s #GW250114!

(Yes, it’s been two weeks since it was announced, but I can still celebrate! 🎉 )

#EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight
@ligo.org @egovirgo.bsky.social
An infographic created by @astronerdika titled “MIRROR, MIRROR, reflecting our LASER beam… what’s the LOUDEST signal gravitational wave we’ve seen?” explaining the gravitational-wave discovery GW250114 and how the observation confirms Hawking’s area law. The visual shows the mirrors in a gravitational-wave interferometer speaking about the loudest event they have seen. There are several illustrations as follows: 1. A simplified diagram of a laser interferometer. A red laser beam from a labeled “LASER source” hits a beam splitter, travels down two perpendicular arms, reflects off round mirrors, and recombines at a labeled “detector.” A label near the top-right mirror reads: “the DETECTOR, signal seen by LIGO Hanford & LIGO Livingston.”
 2. An illustration of a binary black hole merger, with two black circles spiraling inward. They are labeled ~34 solar masses and ~32 solar masses. Surrounding spiral lines represent gravitational waves. A nearby caption reads: “the SOURCE, Discovered in 2025, on January 14, at 08:22:03 UTC.” 3. A prominent speech bubble with white text on a purple background states: “GW250114 is the loudest & clearest signal we’ve seen!” A smaller note below reads: “as of January 2025.” 4. Another speech bubble reads: “AND we saw that Hawking was right too!” 5. Visual explanation of Hawking’s Area Law. Two small circles labeled “this BH” + “this BH” are shown to the left of a “<” symbol, pointing to a larger circle labeled “the surface area of the merged BH.” Below there is the explanatory sentence: “GW250114’s remnant event horizon area is larger than the sum of the individual areas.” 6. A section titled “the PAPERS” lists two arXiv references: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08054 and https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2509.08099 Note: This infographic plays off the classic line from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Here, the “mirrors” are the ones inside the laser interferometer, reflecting light to detect passing gravitational waves.
September 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
ligo.org
"The clearest black hole merger signal yet … offers new insights into these mysterious objects."

@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social writes in @arstechnica.com about the discovery of #GW250114

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

#O4IsHere #EinsteinWasRight #KerrWasRight #HawkingWasRight 🧪🔭⚛️
A black hole hunting machine New black hole merger bolsters Hawking area theorem Physicists spliced merger's gravitational signal into isolated frequencies to determine surface area
September 11, 2025 at 9:58 PM
ligo.org
"Landmark Black Hole Test Marks Decade of Gravitational-Wave Discoveries"

Chiara Mingarelli writes for APS Physics Magazine about #GW250114 physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

#O4IsHere #EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight #KerrWasRight 🧪🔭⚛️
A cartoon showing the area of the two progenitor black holes inferred from the inspiral part of the signal is less than the area of the final black hole inferred from the ringdown part of the signal. Credit: L. Reading-Ikkanda/Simons Foundation
September 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
ligo.org
"Ten years after LIGO’s historical detection of gravitational waves, the project is cracking black hole mysteries at an astounding pace"

@gayoung.bsky.social writes in @gizmodo.com about #GW250114

gizmodo.com/ligos-sharpe...

#O4IsHere #EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight #KerrWasRight 🔭🧪⚛️
Gizmondo headline "LIGO’s Sharpest Detection Yet Confirms Famous Stephen Hawking Theory" above an artistic image of a binary black hole merger in a soothing blue by Maggie Chiang for Simons Foundation
September 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
ligo.org
"Strongest black hole collision yet confirms theories of Einstein, Hawking"

Adrian Cho of @science.org writes about our discovery of #GW250114

www.science.org/content/arti...

#O4IsHere #EinsteinWasRight #HawkingWasRight #KerrWasRight 🔭🧪⚛️☄️
A comparison of GW250114 with our first detection GW150914. The stretching of space in the new black hole merger (top) is similar to that in the first one ever spotted (bottom), but because of reductions in the noise in the detectors, the signal stands out far more clearly. Graphic by C. Bickel/Science. Data from us
September 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM