Black holes are double trouble for galaxy

The new scientist ^ | 11/20/02 | Hazel Muir

[1bigdictator]

Black holes are double trouble for galaxy

12:10 20 November 02

NewScientist.com news service

The optical wavelength image of galaxy NGC 6240 (left) has bright spots now identified by X-rays to be two black holes (right, in blue) (Images: Optical: NASA/STScI, X-ray: NASA/CXC/MPE)

Two monstrous black holes are jostling for power in the same galaxy, the Chandra X-ray satellite has revealed. The pair will slam into each other in a few hundred million years, giving the fabric of space-time a good shake.

"Today for the first time, thanks to the Chandra X-ray observatory's unparalleled ability to spot black holes, we see something that is a harbinger of a cataclysmic event to come," a NASA official told a press conference on Tuesday.

Stefanie Komossa of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and her colleagues used Chandra to look at an extraordinarily bright galaxy called NGC 6240, which is about 400 million light years from Earth.

This galaxy has two bright knots near its centre. "With Chandra, we hoped to determine which one, if either, of the nuclei was an active supermassive black hole," said Komossa. "Much to our surprise, we found that both were."

Chandra showed that both regions emit telltale X-rays generated by superhot matter falling onto a black hole near its event horizon, the point of no return.

Gravitational waves

The black holes in NGC 6240 are currently orbiting each other about 3000 light years apart. They will gradually get closer and eventually crash into one another. The dramatic collision will unleash intense radiation and gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted by Einstein.

Although the astronomers call the discovery "surprising", it makes sense given that the shape of NGC 6240 implies that it is formed from two giant galaxies that have merged together relatively recently.

Most, if not all, large galaxies are thought to harbour a black hole, so it is not startling that a galaxy formed by a merger could have ended up with two.

Galactic collisions are common. In fact, NGC 6240 is a perfect vision of the fate of our own Galaxy, the Milky Way. In about four billion years, the Milky Way will collide with its neighbourhood rival, the giant spiral galaxy M31 in Andromeda.

Hazel Muir

This story is from NewScientist.com's news service - for more exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print edition.

[js1138]

I'madding that to my list of things to worry about, just after giant tidal waves, asteroids, supervolcanos and oak tree emissions.

[1bigdictator]

Check out the photos at the link... pretty cool stuff.

[WoofDog123]

based on what is known about cataclysmic impacts in the last several thousand years, our odds of meteor/comet impacts collapsing civilization in the next 40 years are possibly even a few%...throw in a volcanic super-eruption (i.e. thera, hekla, what was that other one heard 'round the world?) and we might qualify as 1 in 20 for a 'bad to really bad' event by mid-century.

[azhenfud]

"Two monstrous black holes are jostling for power in the same galaxy,..."

Thought this was another Jesse and Al rant - sorry....

[1bigdictator]

ROTFL... good one.

[MHGinTN]

How far away are these 'holes' and how long until the 'seen' images unite? How fast do 'grabitational' waves travel through the universe?... I'm guessing, but it seems like the two holes are likely now one and the gravitational waves should have long since passed us.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

giving the fabric of space-time a good shake.

All kidding aside, can anyone begin to explain what this actually means? I understand that a lot of energy will be released at the X-ray level, but not really an explosion vis a vis a super-nova because no matter will escape the gravitational pull.

Einstein said gravity was merely a distortion of the time-space grid by matter and energy. Fine, I saw the Simpson episode where they tried to visualize it, but what does such a collision really mean in terms of physics and reality?

[goldstategop]

Put simply, a black hole is an agglomeration of nothingness. Everything that's sucked inside it disappears and never comes out again. That's how ominous they are as celestial objects.

[Doctor Stochastic]

General [it's only a] theory predicts that gravitational waves and other disturbances travel at the speed of light, so: What You See is What You Get.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

>>"Two monstrous black holes are jostling for power in the same galaxy,..."
>>Thought this was another Jesse and Al rant - sorry....

Wrong kind of holes.

[azhenfud]

"Everything that's sucked inside it disappears and never comes out again."

ie. Federal Government....

[azhenfud]

LOL! Right, I stand corrected. Thanks....

[goldstategop]

The Daschle's and the Clintons' minds. They're the two most foreboding black holes in all of contemporary existence.

[justlurking]

In fact, NGC 6240 is a perfect vision of the fate of our own Galaxy, the Milky Way. In about four billion years, the Milky Way will collide with its neighbourhood rival, the giant spiral galaxy M31 in Andromeda.

Maybe I should keep those emergency Y2K provisions after all.

[antivenom]

Black holes...not black a$$holes....

[Lael]

the Chandra X-ray satellite

At least Chandra got a Satellite named after her!

[talleyman]

Put simply, a black hole is an agglomeration of nothingness. Everything that's sucked inside it disappears and never comes out again.
Much like the federal budget. (And elections are merely disruptions in the government-spending continuum.)

[Gopher Broke]

Oh my goodness...something new to get depressed about! Didn't you know that Black Holes are caused by God trying to divide by 0?

[Consort]

Everything that's sucked inside it disappears and never comes out again.

That doesn't make sense. I think that our galaxy (and all others) emerged from black holes located in the center of each galaxy. It's a cyclical event.