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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>These LIGO results just keep blowing our minds. They recently announced a merger of two black holes of mass 85 and 66 solar masses, which I thought had to be a typo or a mistake when I first read it, but they claim it is true. That 85 sol black hole is too big to have formed by the usual path as we (or as I) understand it. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To be that size, it would hafta have formed by a previous black hole merger, and if so, that too is quite mysterious by my understanding of cosmology. Even the smaller of this pair is close to the limits of the standard model of black hole formation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>LIGO and now the European VIRGO both saw that merger happen. Those instruments have returned so much good science, oh what a marvelous time to be alive.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>