Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Two Black Holes Merge

NASA ^ | February 12, 2016 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Just press play to watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time. Set on a cosmic stage the black holes are posed in front of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh both inside and outside the Einstein rings even after the black holes have merged. Dubbed GW150914, the gravitational waves detected by LIGO are consistent with the merger of 36 and 29 solar mass black holes at a distance of 1.3 billion light-years. The final, single black hole has 62 times the mass of the Sun, with the remaining 3 solar masses converted into energy in gravitational waves.

[SunkenCiv]

[Simulation Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Project]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

No Big One, YT vid.

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[ETL]

Uh, oh! Mods better be on their toes.

[Paul46360]

Looks like an owl!!!!

[TribalPrincess2U]

LOL! LIKE! /s

[txnativegop]

thanks for the post, SunkinCiv.

[ETL]

[ETL]

[Eddie01]

Not buying it.

The two black holes have the same orientation in space.

Matter is space would be coming into the black hole from all possible tragectories, not just on an XY plane.

...and like the other poster noted it looks like an owl.

[fhayek]

Shouldn’t we call them ‘holes of color’ or some such. Nevertheless, I geek out over this cosmology stuff. I can sort of wrap my mind around the edges of this, but I marvel at the human minds that truly understand this.

[FredZarguna]

1/3 of a second in whose frame of reference? That event could take a very long time near the event horizon -- and might not even be bounded at the singularities themselves.

[ETL]

Sorry, I assumed that .GIF animation I posted was the same as APOD’s at Youtube. For those that didn’t go to YT, it’s not the same. The one on YT is better. Plus it’s about 30 secs in length. Perhaps, that is the difference. The .GIF may have been created from the 30-sec YT video.

[ETL]

Not buying it. The two black holes have the same orientation in space. Matter is space would be coming into the black hole from all possible trajectories, not just on an XY plane.

It's a lot easier to simplify it to 2 dimensions.

[notdownwidems]

but I marvel at the human minds that truly understand this.

There are VERY few that actually do, although some greater number would pretend to, and that includes most scientists and even most astronomers.

[Envisioning]

A black WHAT?

{obscure John Wiley Price reference}

[ETL]

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Not buying it.

"...this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time."

I was gonna call BS too. But then I read the article. Simulation. I feel so...used.

[ETL]

[cloudmountain]

Looks like a Mardi Gras mask.