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Could black holes lose their mass through the propagation (generation?) of gravitational waves?
by jayess 10y ago
Could black holes lose their mass through the propagation (generation?) of gravitational waves?
- roywiggins 10y agoIt seems that it happens when they merge, since: > The cataclysmic event saw the black holes, one eight times more massive than the sun, the other 14 times more massive, merge into one about 21 times heavier than the sun. In the process, energy equivalent to the mass of the sun radiated into space as gravitational waves. So the final black hole had rather less mass than the sum of the original two. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/15/gravitational-waves-detected-from-collision-of-second-set-of-black-holes-ligo https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/15/gravitationa...
- cyphar 10y agoYes, that's where the energy for gravitational waves comes from. In fact, if you check the original LIGO paper, that black hole merger lost something like 3 solar masses of energy.