Gravitational waves reveal most massive black hole merger ever detected — one 'forbidden' by current models

Example Blog - Gravitational waves reveal most massive black hole merger ever detected — one 'forbidden' by current models

By Robert Lea published 2025-07-15

"Black holes this massive are forbidden through standard stellar evolution models."

Scientists have detected the most massive merger of black holes ever. This titanic collision, "heard" in ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, involves black holes so massive that it could challenge current models of the universe.

The merger was detected by the gravitational wave detector network LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) on Nov. 23, 2023, during the fourth observing run of these three sensitive laser interferometers located in the US, Italy, and Japan.

The merger event that set spacetime ringing with this gravitational wave signal, designated GW231123, involved progenitor black holes with masses of 100 and 140 times that of the sun. These two were so massive that when they merged, they created a "daughter" black hole 225 times the mass of our sun, with the missing mass converted to energy, propelling gravitational waves that rippled out from the violent event.