The gravitational waves from a black-hole merger typically ripple at twice the frequency that the black holes go around each other.
By Adrian ChoResearchers with the world’s gravitational wave detectors said today they had picked up vibrations from a cosmic collision that harmonized with the opening notes of an Elvis Presley hit.
The source was the most exotic merger of two black holes detected yet—a pair in which one weighed more than three times as much as the other.
Because of the stark mass imbalance, the collision generated gravitational waves at multiple frequencies, in a harmony Elvis fans would recognize.