'Ringing' Black Hole Signal Confirms Both Einstein's and Hawking's Theories

Gravitational wave detections have provided yet another insight for fundamental physics, with a new detection that helps to bolster the work of both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Scientists studied a series of gravitational wave signals with advanced analytical techniques designed to pull faint background wave signals out of a cacophony of larger waves. This wasn't possible before, and in this case, an upgraded analytical technique rather than an upgraded piece of detection hardware provided the new insight.

The newly faint readings show the "ringing" waves produced at the very end of the merger of two black holes. Most of the waves produced come from their rapid orbit as they spiral toward one another, but fainter gravitational waves are also produced in the milliseconds after they collide as the two masses redistribute into a new, larger one.

Astronomers were able to view this characteristic ringing through the noise of ...