Comparison of the gravitational wave events GW150914 and GW170104

The video contrasts the two events GW150914 (top) and GW170104 (bottom). The strength of the gravitational wave is indicated by elevation and color. We rescale the amplitude of the gravitational wave during the simulation to show the signal during the entire animation and not only close to merger, where it is strongest. The sizes of the black holes are increased by a factor of two to improve visibility. The two animations for GW150914 and GW170104 start at the same gravitational wave frequency of about 25Hz, but because of the different total mass of the binaries, GW150914 merges earlier and has a smaller number of orbits until merger.