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Today in History: LIGO, Virgo Confirm Poincaré’s Predicted Waves

By Drooid · Sep 14, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC · How we work

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Summary

Story summary

On 14 September 2015 LIGO’s twin detectors, later joined by Virgo, recorded GW150914—a brief spacetime ripple from two stellar-mass black holes merging into a 62-solar-mass remnant. The waveform fit general-relativity forecasts, confirming Henri Poincaré’s 1905 prediction of gravitational waves and opening a new observational window on the universe.

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Story summary

On 14 September 2015 LIGO’s twin detectors, later joined by Virgo, recorded GW150914—a brief spacetime ripple from two stellar-mass black holes merging into a 62-solar-mass remnant. The waveform fit general-relativity forecasts, confirming Henri Poincaré’s 1905 prediction of gravitational waves and opening a new observational window on the universe.