Todd Thompson

People are trying to understand supernova explosions, how supermassive black stars explode, how the elements were formed in supermassive stars, so if we could reveal a new population of black holes, it would tell us more about which stars explode, which don't, which form black holes, which form neutron stars. It opens up a new area of study.

Immediately, everyone was like' wow,' because it was such a spectacular thing, not only because it proved that LIGO worked, but because the masses were huge. Black holes that size are a big deal -- we hadn't seen them before.

We're showing this hint that there is another population out there that we have yet to really probe in the search for black holes.

Were showing this hint that there is another population out there that we have yet to really probe in the search for black holes, people are trying to understand supernova explosions, how supermassive black stars explode, how the elements were formed in supermassive stars. So if we could reveal a new population of black holes, it would tell us more about which stars explode, which dont, which form black holes, which form neutron stars. It opens up a new area of study.

What weve done here is come up with a new way to search for black holes, but weve also potentially identified one of the first of a new class of low-mass black holes that astronomers hadnt previously known about. the masses of things tell us about their formation and evolution, and they tell us about their nature.