"Unprecedented Discovery: Neutron Star Merges with Enigmatic Cosmic Object, Unveiled by Gravitational Waves"

Astronomers have detected a rare merger between a neutron star and a lightweight mystery object, possibly a surprisingly lightweight black hole, shedding light on the existence of objects in the "mass gap" region. The signal was detected roughly 650 million light-years from Earth by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration, indicating a collision that occurred about 650 million years ago. This discovery challenges previous assumptions about the mass gap and suggests a more complex evolution of heavy neutron stars into black holes. The finding was presented at the American Physical Society meeting and is awaiting peer review.