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Primordial Black Hole Evidence, GW250114 & JWST's Oldest Supernova
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
LIGO has detected a subsolar-mass gravitational wave signal that could be the first direct evidence for primordial black holes as dark matter — and that's just the start. Today's episode also covers the clearest gravitational wave ever recorded, 390 confirmed mergers, and JWST's most distant supernova ever observed.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
LIGO has picked up something it shouldn't be able to see. A gravitational wave signal detected last November carries the mass signature of an object smaller than any black hole conventional astrophysics can produce.
Separate from the primordial black hole question, gravitational wave astronomy just had its most precise result yet. A black hole merger designated GW250114 produced a signal-to-noise ratio of seventy-six point nine.
That record detection is part of a much larger shift in how gravitational wave science works. The latest catalog release, GWTC-5, adds one hundred sixty-one new black hole merger signals from just nine months of observation, bringing the confirmed total to three hundred ninety.
On a different front, JWST has observed the most distant supernova ever recorded. The star exploded just seven hundred thirty million years after the Big Bang, in what astronomers call cosmic dawn.
JWST also delivered a closer-to-home result this cycle. Infrared imaging of the FS Tau system has revealed protostars between one and three million years old, still actively reshaping the dust and gas around them.
The near-term watchpoints are clear. More subsolar-mass gravitational wave detections would move the primordial black hole hypothesis from interesting to compelling.
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