More particularly, they will be keen on establishing whether black holes and galaxies grow at the same speed and whether the space-time axis is capable of carrying gravitation waves.
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Scientists have taken a look at the phenomenon and found that the pair of closely orbiting black holes is causing a rhythmic flash of light coming from the quasar PG 1302-102.
A pair of two supermassive black holes is set to collide after atleast 100,000 years from now, which is too short time in astronomical terms.
Artist’s depiction of a black hole merger. By observing the process, astrophysicists will be able to tell us whether black holes grow at the same rate as galaxies. Normally, quasars brighten and dim at irregular rates, but when two black holes are on the verge of uniting, the quasar flickers at regular intervals.
Black holes are extremely dense objects whose gravitational pulls are so great that not even light can escape. The black holes are 3.5 billion lights away from Earth. A team astronomers from Caltech reported last winter that twin supermassive black holes appeared spiraling together towards a disastrous collision that potentially could draw down the curtains in the distant galaxy. Quasar is the signal of light produced by black holes as they burn through gas and dust swirling around them.
The findings add a little more knowledge about these black holes. The quasars were named PG -1302-102 and scientists believe as the collision date comes closer, the lights will keep getting brighter, just like how a siren gets louder as it approaches closer.
In this case, the researchers built a model to explain the repeated signal and see if the black holes were as close as predicted.
A team of astronomers analyzed data collected from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
The new study offers a new technique for investigating black holes on the brink of merging.
Past studies had revealed that the flickering effect of quasars might be generated by a discontinuity in the axis of one of the black holes or warps in the debris disk around the pair.
Matthew Graham has been in charge of estimating collision risks between pairs of mammoth black holes.
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“The detection of gravitational waves lets us probe the secrets of gravity and test Einstein’s theory in the most extreme environment in our universe-black holes”, said Daniel D’Orazio, a graduate student at Columbia who was the study’s lead author, in the university release. Researchers also used a doppler effect-based theory to find whether the smaller black hole would get brighter as it entered our planet’s line of sight.
