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 Milky Way galaxy merges with the Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years.
Supermassive black holes are believed to lie at the heart of every major galaxy, increasing in size as they attract and devour vast amounts of dust, gas, and stars from the surrounding space environment. As wandering galaxies collide with each other, the monstrous detachments of their nuclei are also being brought closer together.
The newly discovered black holes were discovered by scientists observing the aftermath of this galactic merger occurring about 480 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cancer.
The energetic pair have been spotted feeding from a vortex of matter being torn apart by the cosmic meltdown, and they represent the closest black holes humanity has ever discovered that have been caught in the process of merging.
Scientists used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Metric Array (ALMA) to look at the dusty space environment at the core of the merger to identify black holes. The chaotic duo — known collectively as UGC4211 — has been targeted by a group of seven powerful observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
The data from these observations revealed that the black holes were between 125 and 200 million times the mass of our sun, according to a statement from NASA. Simmons Foundation in New York. These celestial bodies are only 750 light-years apart and are likely to merge in a few hundred million years.
The scientists behind the article detailing the discovery – published in Letters from The Astrophysical Journal Use the data to estimate the amount of supermassive black holes that could merge across 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 the mergers of black holes. As a gravitational wave travels 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 may be many more pairs of growing supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies that we have not been able to identify until now,” said Ezequiel Traister, an astronomer at Universidad Cattolica de Chile and co-author of the new article. 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 across the universe.”
This discovery will give scientists a better understanding of what will happen to the Milky Way in the distant future. Billions of years from now, 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 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 insight into 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 more than 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