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On February 11, 2017, the LIGO partnership announced the first gravitational
wave detection, which is also the first observation of a black hole fusion.
The history
The idea of the existence of such a massive body that even light cannot escape was
first proposed by the pioneer English astronomer and clergyman John Michell in a
letter published in November 1784. Michell's simple calculations assumed that such
an object could have the same density as our sun, and concluded that such an object
would form when the diameter of a star exceeds that of our sun by a scale of 500, and
the cosmic speed exceeds that of light. Michell correctly noted that such supermassive
but non-radiant objects can be observed by studying their gravitational effects on
nearby objects. Scholars of the time were delighted in the first phase with the idea
that giant stars may appear invisible, but the enthusiasm faded slightly with the
discovery in the 19th century that light is a wave.
If light was a wave instead of a "twilight", it became unclear whether and what
influence gravity can have on light rays. Modern relativity discredits Michell's notion of
a ray of light that spreads directly from the surface of a supermassive star, being
slowed by the star's gravity, stopped, and then released back into the surface of the
star.
A simple illustration of a non-rotating black hole
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