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Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger — Physical Review Letters

Revision 6ac084de-fa5e-483f-a10b-a704f295047e · 4/10/2026, 1:40:48 AM UTC
Key
abbott2016gw150914
Authors
LIGO Scientific Collaboration; Virgo Collaboration
Issued
2016-2-11
Type
article-journal
Container
Physical Review Letters
Volume
116
Issue
6
Pages
061102
Raw CSL JSON
{
  "DOI": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102",
  "URL": "https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102",
  "page": "061102",
  "type": "article-journal",
  "issue": "6",
  "title": "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger",
  "author": [
    {
      "literal": "LIGO Scientific Collaboration"
    },
    {
      "literal": "Virgo Collaboration"
    }
  ],
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2016,
        2,
        11
      ]
    ]
  },
  "volume": "116",
  "container-title": "Physical Review Letters"
}

Claims

  1. The GW150914 detection confirmed a major prediction of Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opened a new observational window on the universe.
    "our observations provide unique access to the properties of space-time in the strong-field, high-velocity regime and confirm predictions of general relativity for the nonlinear dynamics of highly disturbed black holes"
    Quote language: en
  2. On September 14, 2015, the two LIGO detectors simultaneously observed a gravitational-wave signal (GW150914) consistent with the inspiral and merger of two black holes of approximately 36 and 29 solar masses, with about 3 solar masses radiated as gravitational waves.
    "On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal."
    Quote language: en
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