Earlier this year a team of astronomers from Caltech predicted that two huge black holes in the Virgo galaxy were going to collide. Scientists who have been following the event found that a pair of closely orbiting black holes is producing a rhythmic flash of light coming from the quasar PG 1302-102.The two supermassive black holes are about to smash into one another.
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The Caltech astronomers estimate the collision of two supermassive black holes could release destructive gravitational waves through space-time, with the energy equivalent of 100 million supernova explosions.
That flickering has been interpreted as two black holes that are circling one another (trust them on this) with a total mass of more than a billion suns, said the Times. According to scientists, the evidence of the collision came from the flickering that was observed from the galaxy’s nucleus, a quasar by the name PG 1303-102. “Watching this process reach its culmination can tell us whether black holes and galaxies grow at the same rate, and ultimately test a fundamental property of space-time: its ability to carry vibrations called gravitational waves, produced in the last, most violent stage of the merger”. Curiously, though, this is not the brighter black hole, instead its the smaller one that’s glowing stronger. The black holes, which are Separated by 3.5 billion light-years away from Earth, offer researchers insight on the growth of galaxies and even the universe. Quasar is the signal of light produced by black holes as they burn through gas and dust swirling around them.
They then estimated and combined the relative mass of the two black holes to narrow down the timescale of the predicted collision.
The newly found technique that allowed astronomers spot the unusual pair could help them detect even more black holes that are about to merge or are in the midst of a collision.
The first glimpse that astronomers have got on the mammoth black holes was at the beginning of the year.
Astrophysicists of Columbia University, New York City, said that the two black holes are the closest they’ve ever seen yet, and may be currently approaching each other and eventually collide.
Other researchers have confirmed the results of the Graham’s work with their own studies.
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Daniel D’Orazio, graduate student at Columbia University, declared “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”. “Getting there is a holy grail of our field.” said D’Orazio.
