On May 26, 2026, the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration published a new catalog of gravitational wave events. A total of 161 events, detected between April 2024 and the end of January 2025, have been added to the collection, bringing the total number of gravitational wave signals detected to date to 390. Among the most significant findings are: evidence for the existence of second-generation black holes, the most precise sky localization ever achieved for a gravitational wave source, and the first measurement of three vibrational modes of a black hole. A wealth of results that marks the coming of age of gravitational astronomy.
The publication of the catalog on the website of the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center (GWOSC, www.gwosc.org) is accompanied by a collection of scientific articles that includes not only the results themselves (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27225) but also an introduction to gravitational wave detectors and general concepts about transient gravitational wave signals produced by the merger of compact astrophysical objects (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27223) and a detailed description of the methods used in searching for these signals (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27224).
Also published along with the catalog are all the data analyzed to produce it so that scientists outside the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration can study it independently in the spirit of “open science.” The characteristics of the public data along with details of the procedure by which they are calibrated and on the quality of the data are discussed in a separate article (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27090) published along with the other three already mentioned.
Researchers from the University of Trieste and of the Trieste section of the INFN were actively involved in both article writing and preparation of data for publication, in particular Agata Trovato (UniTS-INFN) and Panagiotis Iosif (UniTS-INFN) are part of the working group that wrote the data article (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27090), Agata Trovato is responsible for preparing the public data, and Edoardo Milotti (UniTS-INFN) served as the contact person for the Burst group regarding the other articles mentioned.
For information: Agata Trovato (agata.trovato@units.it), Edoardo Milotti (milotti@ts.infn.it)
