Scientists finally crack the mystery of a "forbidden" black hole merger
A team using the LIGO and Virgo detectors just spotted an extraordinary event—GW231123.
What's wild? The two original black holes (roughly 100 and 130 times the mass of our Sun) were in a range where, according to old theories, they shouldn't even exist.
New simulations show how these oddball black holes are born
So how did this happen?
Fresh computer models suggest that super-fast spinning, magnetized stars can actually collapse into hefty black holes right in this so-called "mass gap."
Magnetic forces help shape one heavy, slow-spinning and one lighter, fast-spinning black hole—matching what was seen in GW231123.
Why does it matter?
This discovery rewrites what we thought we knew about how massive stars die and become black holes.
It also gives scientists new ways to spot and study extreme cosmic events using gravitational waves.
For anyone curious about space mysteries, it's a pretty exciting leap forward!