Scientists have discovered a pair of supermassive black holes that must have merged into a unique shape. The findings could help astronomers understand what will happen when our galaxy, the Milky Way, merges with the Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years.
Supermassive black holes are thought to lie at the heart of every major galaxy, increasing in size as they attract and gobble up huge amounts of dust, gas and stars from their surrounding space environment. As the wandering galaxies collide with each other, the monstrous detachments of their nuclei are also brought together.
The newly discovered black holes were discovered by scientists by observing the aftermath of this galactic merger that occurred about 480 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer.
The energetic pair were spotted feeding off a vortex of matter torn apart by the cosmic merger, and they represent the closest black holes humanity has ever discovered to have been caught in the merger process.
Scientists used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Metric Array (ALMA) to observe the dusty space environment at the center of the merger to identify black holes. The chaotic duo — known collectively as UGC4211 — have come under fire from a group of seven powerful observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
The data from these observations revealed that the black holes were between 125 million and 200 million times the mass of our sun, according to a NASA statement. Simmons Foundation in New York. These celestial bodies are only 750 light-years apart and will likely merge within a few hundred million years.
Scientists behind paper detailing discovery – published in Letters from the Astrophysical Journal Use the data to estimate how many supermassive black holes could merge in the universe. The team concludes that a surprisingly large population is likely, and that the extreme forces at play during mergers likely create a background chorus of powerful gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves are actually ripples in space-time that can be created by the motions of massive objects such as merging black holes. As a gravitational wave moves away from its source, it compresses and stretches all matter in its path, creating a disturbance that can be measured on Earth with advanced laser instruments.
“There could be many more pairs of supermassive black holes growing in the centers of galaxies that we haven’t been able to identify until now,” said Ezequiel Traister, an astronomer at the Universidad Cattolica de Chile and co-author of the new paper. in a new statement. “If this is the case, then in the near future we will observe frequent gravitational wave events resulting from the merger of these objects throughout the universe.”
This discovery will give scientists a better understanding of what will happen to the Milky Way in the distant future. In billions of years, our galaxy will merge with its larger spiral neighbor – the Andromeda Galaxy.
Eureka principal investigator and lead author of the new study, Michael Koss, commented in the statement released on the National Astronomical Observatory’s website.
“What we have just studied is a source that is in the final stage of the collision, so what we are seeing portends this merger and also gives us an idea of the relationship between black holes that merge, grow and eventually produce gravitational waves ”.
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Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years of experience covering groundbreaking developments in multiple scientific fields and has absolutely no time for fools. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); Mr. Weiss, NRAO/AUI/NSF
