GW170608 was a

gravitational wave Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1 ...

event that was recorded on 8 June 2017 at 02:01:16.49 UTC by

Advanced LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...

. It originated from the merger of two black holes with masses of

12^_\,M_\odot

and

7^_\,M_\odot

. The resulting black hole had a mass around 18 solar masses. About one solar mass was converted to energy in the form of gravitational waves.

Event detection

The signal was not detected by automated analyses, as the Hanford instrument was undergoing tests at specific frequencies and data from the instrument was not being analyzed. The signal was initially identified by visual inspection of triggers from the Livingston detector. Manual follow-up with the Hanford data revealed a coincident signal. Subsequent investigations determined that the ongoing tests of the Hanford instrument did not affect the recovery of the signal from the Hanford data.

Announcement

This was the first gravitational wave detection where the scientific article announcing the discovery was posted on the electronic preprint arXiv server before the paper was accepted for publication by the journal.

References

{{2017 in space Gravitational waves June 2017 events 2017 in science 2017 in space Stellar black holes