Posted on 05/28/2015 6:23:02 PM PDT by LibWhacker
In the center of most galaxies (ours included) there is a supermassive black hole that holds everything together. However, one galaxy 10.5 billion light years away looks like it might have two black holes, and just like in Highlander, there can be only one. Scientists believe the pair are going to crash into each other in just 21 years. This could provide an unprecedented opportunity to observe the mind-boggling physics of such an event.
The galaxy in question doesn’t have a snazzy name — it’s known only as PSO J334.2028+01.4075. It’s what is known as a quasar, or an “active galaxy.” These objects blast out huge amounts of light and other electromagnetic radiation as matter falls into the black hole at the center. The light emitted by most quasars flickers randomly as more or less matter gets sucked in, but if there are two black holes in the core, there is a predictable pattern to the flickering. This is what astronomers have detected in PSO J334.2028+01.4075.
Graduate student Tingting Liu from the University of Maryland spotted the anomalous galaxy using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. It was used to analyse 316 quasars to find the right type of recurring signal, and PSO J334.2028+01.4075 was the single best candidate. The black holes in the center of this galaxy are believed to be between three billion and thirty billion solar masses.
While the data points to a collision in 21 years, that’s 21 years from our perspective on Earth. Because PSO J334.2028+01.4075 is so far away, this event actually happened billions of years in the past. We’re just lucky to have found it at the right time. Theoretically, the merging of two supermassive black holes should produce a burst of gravitational waves that warp space-time.
More instruments will surely be trained on the quasar to confirm these observations and watch what happens as the black holes draw closer. If the team’s analysis of the data is correct, they should be able to accurately predict the next cycle of light coming from the quasar. That will add a lot of weight to the claims if it proves accurate.
Noted.
The headline sounds like a reference to the 2036 presidential election.
We’re all gonna die!
In 21 years or 10.5 billion years ago minus 21?
IBBF.
“In before ‘Bush’s Fault’.”
Just what we needed
Weightier clams!
It’s going to warp space-time? So we’re all going to end up living Groundhog Day?
If they are 10.5 billion ly away, then it already happened a looooong time ago.
I don’t know but the headline sounds racist. Anyway, we are doomed. So far 6:40 pm, and no major quake, dang I was all prep for it, o well. Should we prepare when the Black Holes collide?
>> The headline sounds like a reference to the 2036 presidential election.
I figured it was an article about the Obamas’ honeymoon.
Don’t worry, NBC will have the Jap physicist on tomorrow explaining it all and as an exit note will blame it on man made Global Warming. Please note that although he is a physicist he claims to be an expert on everything from earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, etc. and he can by sheer brilliance (and no facts) associate any disaster to man made Global Warming.
Life just isn’t safe anymore.
So, what happens when 21 years from now plus or minus, the wave front passes over us and we find ourselves all over the place, like on Mary’s wall at Fredericksburg, in a B-17 over Germany or marching across Britain in a Roman Legion???
Give or take a month.
If we are over Germany, Homer Simpson can direct us to the NYT edition. Anything earlier, Sunken Civ will have to handle.
If we live in a false vacuum this could be really bad...
Oh, I don't know. It sounds pretty snazzy to me.
Would make one hell of a password!
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