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.
That’s racist.
Already happening in Baltimore.
This article is racist.
How do you flatter a black hole?
Tell it that it sucks.
Black Ho’s colliding happen every day and night in Bal’more.
I was just thinking about 1964 and a beautiful girl named Elaine. Or was it about Leslie, also in 1964? I would have married her on the spot.
Can I go back, please?
PS: Don’t tell my wife. She thinks I’m already crazy.
This is fantastic. We are actually predicting what we can see 21 years in our future that actually happened billions of years ago. We are predicting the past. Mind blowing.
Interesting you should ask that. I was thinking along similar lines; namely, could gravitational waves spreading out in spacetime be so powerful that they would kill you if you were close enough to the source of the commotion? Never mind the EM radiation, etc. We’re just talking about the gravity waves alone here.
I’m guessing yes, inasmuch as tidal forces - which are due to gravity - near a black hole can rip you apart. But to my pea-sized brain, time seems like it might complicate the picture a little bit and give us an “out.”
Likewise, how large would merging supermassive black holes have to be [in order for the gravity waves generated by their merging] to kill you clear across the universe? I’m guessing dozens, maybe hundreds (though that much mass probably doesn’t exist in the universe, observable or not), of orders of magnitude larger than these two supermassive black holes.
After the first time, who’s counting?
There’s somebody counting!
It would say “2 giant black a-holes” if it were about the Obozos.
Wherein both people have infinite “Gravitas”?
No, but in about 21 years, we might see if the two black holes in question indeed crashed into each other about 10.5 billion years ago...
Yep. My thoughts, too.
#BlackHolesMatter
Just be sure to always carry your camera phone, get some footage of the legion.
Thanks Red Badger.
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