Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol46 Issue26 5–9 July 2021

These rare mergers are described as "black holes eating neutron stars like Pac Man". One event included a black hole with a mass nine times bigger than our own sun and a neutron star with two times our sun's mass. The other event included a black hole with about six times the mass of our sun and a neutron star with 1.5 times its mass. The detection of these NS-BH mergers is a giant step towards better understanding some of the most complex mysteries of our universe including the nature of matter, space and time.