Black holes are regions of space that concentrate a very intense gravitational force. Recently, scientists at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory observed that four of them are about to collide.
This discovery had never been seen before by humans, as black holes had never approached this close before. Because they are supermassive black holes, scientists are still apprehensive about what might happen in the event of a possible collision.
Collision should take time to happen
Even if this encounter is closer in astronomical years, for human time, this collision will still be a long time to be seen. The expectation is that this phenomenon is occurring due to the merger between dwarf galaxies.
The study of these mergers is important to define the history of black holes in the Milky Way, the galaxy that houses the solar system, and therefore the Earth.
Star may have escaped from a black hole
Scientists have discovered another event involving black holes, where a star may have resisted the gravitational field of one of them. When it approached the gravitational field of the hole, the star should have suffered a TDE, which is the complete destruction of that stellar body. However, the light from the star was spotted years later, which could mean partial destruction, never seen before.
The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae equipment detected the star’s explosion, which emits an intense glow that fades over the years. However, after 600 days of initial detection, the brightness faded, which had never happened before. 600 days after it went out, the glow was emitted again.
