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A still image from a simulation that shows a black-hole binary inside a globular cluster. A new study examines how we can tell whether the black holes detected by LIGO were formed hierarchically from mergers of smaller black holes. [Northwestern Visualization/Carl Rodriguez]

By Susanna Kohler on 12 May 2017

 

The recent successes of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has raised hopes that several long-standing questions in black-hole physics will soon be answerable. Besides revealing how the black-hole binary pairs are built, could detections with LIGO also reveal how the black holes themselves form?

 

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