WhatFinger


Chandra X-ray Observatory

Pair of Supermassive Black Holes Discovered



In another astronomical first involving black holes, a team of scientists working with images garnered from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, have discovered a pair of supermassive black holes orbiting one another.

Support Canada Free Press


The Chandra image revealed that at the center of the extraordinarily bright NGC 6240 galaxy, a pair of black holes are orbiting one another. In fact, the data collected suggests that in several hundred million years, the two will merge, and form an even greater black hole. This proof is the evidence that astronomers have been looking for to prove one of their black hole theories; that the enormous black holes at the center of galaxies can reach that size through merging with other galaxies. "The breakthrough came with Chandra's ability to clearly distinguish the two nuclei, and measure the details of the X-radiation from each nucleus," said Guenther Hasinger, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, a coauthor of an upcoming Astrophysical Journal Letters paper describing the research. "These cosmic fingerprints revealed features characteristic of supermassive black holes -- an excess of high-energy photons from gas swirling around a black hole, and X-rays from fluorescing iron atoms in gas near black holes," he said. So of course, though everyone knows you cannot see a black hole, you can see what is about to be sucked in to a black hole. In this case, the high energy protons dancing around the accretion disk are the evidence that Chandra focused on. "With Chandra, we hoped to determine which one, if either, of the nuclei was an active supermassive black hole," said Stefanie Komossa, also of the Max Planck Institute, lead author of the paper on NGC 6240. "Much to our surprise, we found that both were active black holes!" NGC 6240 is an astronomer's dream as well, and not just because of its nucleus. 6240 has reached its massive size as a result of a (astronomically relevant) recent galaxy collision. As a result, an increase in materials has caused a rapid growth of stars. Sadly, it is hard to peer through all the confusion created by the collision, but luckily for the Chandra observers, the X-rays emanating from the black holes are strong enough to punch through. One of the most fascinating outcomes from this discovery is, I think, the impending collision of the two black holes. Apparently, in those several hundred million years, the two will simply spin so close to each other that they will naturally merge. When that happens though, an incredible burst of gravitational waves will burst forth and spread throughout the universe. So strong will this explosion be, that disruptions will be felt as ripples in the fabric of space, providing us with one of the few very Star Trek-like phenomenons we could have hoped for. These ripples will distort the visible distance between any two points within the observable universe, something that astronomers believe happens several times a year. This time though, we're aware of why, what and when. "This is the first time we see a binary black hole in action, the smoking gun for something that will become a major gravitational wave burst in the future," said Hasinger. Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.


View Comments

Guest Column Joshua Hill -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


Sponsored