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The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog version 5.0 (GWTC-5.0) includes events from the second part of the fourth observing run (O4b: April 10, 2024 – January 28, 2025) and the preceding engineering run. Search algorithms identified 161 compact object merger candidates with an astrophysical probability p_astro ≥ 0.5 after false-alarm rejection. For 104 of these, the false alarm rate is less than 1 per year, allowing detailed parameter estimation. All these signals are consistent with binary black hole mergers; component median masses range from 5.14 M☉ to 70 M☉. Thanks to the improved sensitivity of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network, five events have network signal-to-noise ratios above 30, with a record 76.9 for GW250114_082203, opening opportunities for precision tests of general relativity. Including previous updates, with 229 candidates up to O4a, the cumulative catalog now counts 390 transients with p_astro ≥ 0.5, significantly expanding the gravitational-wave picture of the Universe.
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LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA detectors act like giant microphones, listening in on gravitational waves—vibrations of space itself. The new GWTC-5.0 catalog recorded 161 black hole mergers, bringing the total count to 390 events. Each such signal is an echo of a cosmic duet that ends with the birth of a single massive black hole.
The instruments' sensitivity grew so much that one signal, GW250114_082203, turned out to be 76 times louder than usual—like a whisper turning into an orchestra. This allowed us to weigh the participants with unprecedented precision: their masses range from 5 to 70 solar masses. Among them, a record light one was caught—just 5 solar masses, nearly the theoretical minimum for black holes. Such objects force us to refine the boundary between black holes and ultra-dense neutron stars.
These observations directly check how mass curves space—exactly according to the recipe of Albert Einstein. The dreams of detectors' creators Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne about such precision are becoming routine.
🎯 Every few minutes, somewhere in the universe, black holes collide, producing a gravitational wave—the cosmos literally hums with such events.
