"The LIGO/Virgo Binary-Black-Hole Orrery"

On September 14 2015, Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) successfully made the first gravitational wave detection. Since then, LIGO and Virgo have published nine additional observations of gravitational waves from merging black holes. This poster presents a visualization, developed for education and public outreach, illustrating the different merging black holes that LIGO and Virgo have observed so far. The animation uses numerical relativity (specifically, the Spectral Einstein Code) to model the black holes’ horizons and the emitted gravitational waves. Each calculation is consistent with one of the LIGO-Virgo observations.