SPACE — Scientists have revealed the existence of two of the heaviest supermassive black holes ever known. This pair of black holes was discovered in a so-called “fossil galaxy”, presenting a major question mark in the understanding of the universe.
These two supermassive black holes are located in an elliptical galaxy known as B2 0402+379. These two objects are so large that they refuse to blend and merge.
Although theoretical mergers of supermassive black holes have been predicted before, a merger between two supermassive galaxies has never been directly observed.
These two black holes, when combined, have a combined mass that is 28 billion times that of the Sun, making them the heaviest pair of black holes ever recorded.
Interestingly, the binary component of this system is the closest pair of supermassive black holes. These two black holes are only 24 light years apart. P
This discovery is unique because it provides the opportunity to study these two objects separately in sufficient detail. Moreover, although these two objects should have merged, in reality they appear to have been locked in the same orbital dance for more than 3 billion years.
This pair of supermassive black holes was discovered through analysis of data collected by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. Scientists predict that these two supermassive black holes cannot merge due to their enormous masses.
Roger Romani, a physics professor at Stanford University and member of the discovery team, said, “Usually, galaxies with lighter pairs of black holes have enough stars and mass to quickly encourage them to merge,” he said, as reported by Space.
This highlights the complexity of this phenomenon and provides directions for further research.
Galaxy B2 0402+379 is classified as a “fossil cluster”, a phenomenon that occurs when several galaxy clusters consisting of stars and gas combine to form a single giant galaxy. The large mass of the two supermassive black holes at their centers indicates that the merger between the smaller black holes occurred when several galaxies in this cluster collided and merged.
Theoretical scientists believe that when these galaxies collide, the supermassive black holes at their centers also move together, forming a binary pair. However, many questions still need to be answered, especially whether there is a limit to the size of supermassive black holes that could cause such mergers to stop.
This study has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
2024-03-02 02:37:00
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