Two supermassive black holes observed orbiting each other
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The University of New Mexico has recently published an article that advises two supermassive black holes have been observed orbiting each other.
In a recent article – Groundbreaking discovery confirms existence of orbiting supermassive black holes (UNM, June 29, 2017) it has been identified that a unique insight into our universe is being gained from an unusual phenomenon.
The binary supermassive black holes, which are orbiting one another; hundreds of millions of light years from earth, have been causing ripples in the fabric of space and time.
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The data from these ripples has been published by – ‘The University of New Mexico Department of Physics & Astronomy graduate student Karishma Bansal, who is the first-author on the paper, ‘Constraining the Orbit of the Supermassive Black Hole Binary 0402+379’, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal’ (UNM, 2017)
The observations of the binary supermassive blackholes have been ongoing for longer than a decade and will provide much sought after information about our universe. It is thought that such systems are formed when two galaxies merge. Although it has been theorized that such an impressive phenomenon should exist, within our universe, this is the first time that a binary supermassive black hole system has been observed. However, it is central to our understand to know if these black holes were formed simultaneously or separately.
The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), that is operated from New Mexico, has been plotting the movements of the disturbances in the fabric of space and time, caused by the supermassive black holes. The data has been gathered since 2003, confirming that they are in orbit with each other.
These black holes are approximately 750 million light years from Earth and belong to the galaxy named 0402+379. Both supermassive black holes have a combined mass 15 billion times the size of our sun, and their orbit takes a whopping 24000 years – meaning observing a curvature in their orbit is difficult.
This discovery will allow astrophysicist at the UNM to understand the formation of galaxies and their eventual demise. As black holes have a huge influence on the stars within galaxies this observation will provide invaluable insights into our own galaxy’s past and future.
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