- Scientists find new black hole pair
- Effects of supermassive black holes’ collision
Based on recent findings NASA warns us that the countdown begins: two supermassive black holes will clash in Virgo constellation. The light signals emitted by the PG 1302-102 pair indicate that two huge black holes are located at only one week-light away from each other.
Seeing two supermassive black holes is not new to astronomers, who witness impressive and mysterious space phenomena every day. Yet, the vicinity between the two black holes has alarmed all NASA researchers because they fear an imminent clash between the two celestial bodies is about to take place.
The first glimpse that astronomers have got on the mammoth black holes was at the beginning of the year. Back then, they estimated that the two celestial formations were at a distance of 20 light-years away from each other, so they would require approximately 100,000 light years before they collided.
Judging by the new signals emitted by the PG 1302-102 quasar, such an explosion could take place a lot earlier because the two black holes are revolving against each other at a distance of just 3.5 billion light-years. In space terms, this amount of time equals a nanosecond; hence, researchers worries.
The collision of two supermassive black holes could completely modify the space-time structure, researchers have concluded. Zoltan Haiman, astronomer at Columbia University, has explained that a similar collision could trigger powerful gravitational waves all throughout the universe.
Haiman has further stated that the evolution of the two space formations will be closely watched in the following period, giving scientists the possibility to learn more on this phenomenon. More particularly, they will be keen on establishing whether black holes and galaxies grow at the same speed and whether the space-time axis is capable of carrying gravitation waves.
Matthew Graham has been in charge of estimating collision risks between pairs of mammoth black holes. He has noticed that light signals become more frequent as the two bodies grow closer to one another.
Researchers will continue to study black hole pairs because now they have the technology to do so.
The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature.
Image source: www.universetoday.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.