“[A] team of European researchers decided to model an event that should be
relatively uncommon: the two black holes didn’t start out in a mutual orbit but
happened to pass close enough to gravitationally latch onto each other. … The
models that produced a chirp that best matched the GW190521
signal saw a single pass that drew the black holes closer, followed by a single
rapid curve into the collision.”
posted 11/28/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Matching the density of the two planets produces a model that has a bit over
10 percent of the planet’s mass composed of water. This, however, means
that about half the planet’s volume is water. … Due to the planet’s mass, the
pressure of the atmosphere would be immense and could create a layer of
supercritical water between the atmosphere and the ocean.”
posted 12/20/2022 8:00pm ∞
“[T]he earliest image indicates that it was roughly 100,000 Kelvin, which
suggests we were looking at it just six hours after it exploded. The latest
lensed image shows that the debris had already cooled to 10,000 K over the
eight days between the two different images.”
posted 11/24/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Knowing that these two impacts generated events allowed for a direct comparison
between the estimates and the impact location. And it turns out the estimates
are quite good. One event was estimated at 3,530 ± 360 km away,
and it turned out to be 3,460 km from the lander, a difference of just
70 km.”
John Timmer ,
Big impacts picked up by seismograph on Mars
(Ars Technica October 27, 2022 )
posted 11/12/2022 8:00pm ∞
“If we assume there’s a ring produced every orbit, the 17 present rings indicate
about 130 years of ring production. Since they now extend out about a
light-year, we can infer that they’re moving away from the binary stars at about
2,600 kilometers every second.”
posted 10/29/2022 8:00pm ∞