black hole merger recorded so far. The merger’s scale — about 255 solar masses — is so immense that it shouldn’t theoretically be feasible based on our existing comprehension of physics and the genesis of black holes.
Due to the enormous size of the merger, astronomers believe that each black hole must have had a mass of at least 100 to 140 solar masses prior to the merger. Such estimates place these two black holes within what scientists refer to as the “upper-mass gap,” a mass range in which black holes are not thought to form directly from the demise of stars, since stars of that magnitude typically do not leave a stellar remnant.
However, the enigma extends beyond the mass of these two black holes, as Mark Hanna, a member of the LVK (LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA) Collaboration from Cardiff University remarked in a statement. Furthermore, the researchers observed that both black holes are spinning at 80 to 90% of their maximum rotational speed, marking them as the fastest spinning black holes ever documented by LVK.
