LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Catalogue: From The First Single Detection In 2015 To 390 Cosmic Collisions A Decade Later Including The Most Precisely Located Source Ever Found, Pinned To Just 6 Square Degrees Of Sky
According to Phys.org, reporting on work by the University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration has published a vast new treasure trove of gravitational-wave detections, hailed as a milestone marking the coming of age of gravitational astronomy.
The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalogue-5.0 (GWTC-5) details 161 new signals detected between April 2024 and the end of January 2025, bringing the total number of confirmed detections since the first in 2015 to 390.
The precision is the breakthrough. According to the LVK collaboration and IFAE, a signal detected on June 15, 2024 designated GW240615 set a record for the most precise sky localisation ever achieved, pinning the source to an area of just 6 square degrees.
That accuracy came from triangulating across all three detectors after Virgo rejoined observations in April 2024. Together, GWTC-5 and the earlier GWTC-4 now contain roughly 75% of all gravitational-wave events observed since detection began.
The significance is structural. In 2015, one detection was a Nobel Prize. In 2026, the field detects them by the hundreds. Gravitational astronomy has shifted from a triumph of physics to a routine observational science. The next run, O5, begins in late 2026.
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