GW190814

In June 2020, astronomers reported details of a compact binary merging, in the "mass gap" of cosmic collisions, of a first-ever "mystery object", either an extremely heavy neutron star (that was theorized not to exist) or a too-light black hole, with a black hole, that was detected as the gravitational wave GW190814. {{c_quote The mass of the lighter component is estimated to be 2.6 times the mass of the Sun ( ≈ ), placing it in the aforementioned mass gap between neutron stars and black holes. Despite an intensive search, no optical counterpart to the gravitational wave was observed. The lack of emitted light could be consistent with either a situation in which a black hole entirely consumed a neutron star or the merger of two black holes. ==See also==