ALT Modified version of a previous, popular artist illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 star system. The background is black. At far left is a representation of the TRAPPIST-1 star, an M class dwarf star. It is seen as a glowing orange-yellow semi-circle. To the right of the star, illustrations of its seven planets. The planets are labeled b, c, d, e, f, g and h.They all resemble mottled clay marbles in browns and dark greens. The planet TRAPPIST-1 e, which is the fourth one from the star, has been spotlighted to stand out. The other planets are dimmed down to be less visible. The planet e also has a white label as opposed to gray letter labels for the rest of the planets. At bottom right is the word “Illustration (2018)” in tiny gray text.
ALT Rai wearing round glasses and a warm sweater. Photographed in 2016 by Bryce Vickmark
ALT Dr Amanda Farah standing in front of a huge lecture screen announcing the detection of GW231123
ALT Amanda Farah showing a slide of the inferred properties of GW231123's source. The masses are high, each black hole is probably over 100 solar masses. However, our different models for the signal give different results as this is a difficult system to study. The spins are inferred to be high, near the maximum possible values. High spin systems are where are signal models are most difficult to accurately calculate. This are also rare amongst observations.
ALT Dr Sophie Bini going into details of the analysis of GW231123. She is here highlighting that the masses and spins of the source are exceptional.
ALT Sophie Bini talking about how we test that the merger product is consistent with a black hole solution to Einstein's equations. Being so high mass makes this a perfect system for this type of test, as we get lots of signal from the merger remnant. The test was consistent with predictions.
