GW190521 – First clear evidence of Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBH) The heaviest and most distant binary black hole merger detected so far

On May 21, 2019, at 8:32am IST, the Advanced LIGO detectors (at Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana) and advanced Virgo (in Cascina, Italy) detector during the third observing run observed a gravitational-wave signal from the merger of an extraordinarily massive pair of black-holes orbiting in a binary system. The event has been named GW190521. This is the heaviest and most distant binary black hole merger detected so far. The final black hole is a 142 solar mass Intermedia Mass Black Hole. [Image credit: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/R. Hurt (IPAC)]

Press Release by the LIGO-India Scientific Collaboration (LISC).