LIGO and VIRGO detected the first binary black hole merger with unequal mass components

Simulation of GW190412: Binary Black Hole Merger [Credits: N. Fischer, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes project]
21 April 2020

On April 18, 2020, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration announced the discovery of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger, labeled GW190412. This is the first binary black hole detection with clear evidence for unequal-mass components.

The signal, named GW190412, was detected by the Advanced Virgo and the two Advanced LIGO detectors (LLO and LHO), and was produced by merger of two black holes, 2.4 bilion light-years away, one being about 3.6 times heavier than the other. Analysis indicates that the black holes that merged had masses equal to 30 and 8 times the mass of the sun. 

This detection provides gravitational wave scientists with a better insight into how black holes pair up.

Read more about the new discovery:

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20200420

https://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GW190412/index.php

https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0163/P190412/008/gw190412-discovery.pdf