Supermassive Black Holes Observed in Close Dance

[Disir]

Astronomers have measured the motions of a tight pair of supermassive black holes, separated by just 24 light-years in a nearby galaxy.


Galaxies crash together all the time, cosmologically speaking. We see these far-off collisions in the night sky, and we can even calculate our own galaxy’s fate in a massive mash-up with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.

The effect of galactic collisions on stars is fantastic, as the galaxies’ gravitational interactions send their stellar members into streams and swirls. But the effect on the supermassive black holes that lurk in the center of most large galaxies is still more awesome, as multiple forces bring the two behemoths closer together until they ultimately coalesce.

Yet, even though black holes are a dime a dozen and galactic collisions commonplace, supermassive black hole pairs have been surprisingly difficult to find. Despite measurements of thousands of galaxies, astronomers have found exactly one close pair of supermassive black holes, separated by only 24 light-years (less than a Kessel Run), at the center of a galaxy dubbed 0402+379.

Now, graduate student Karishma Bansal (University of New Mexico) and colleagues have measured the motions of this pair using radio observations that span 12 years. The results are published in the July 1st Astrophysical Journal.
Supermassive Black Holes Observed in Close Dance - Sky & Telescope

But we don't get to see it here.

 

[toobfreak]

Interesting post. Never expected to see someone post a list of Arp Galaxies here! In the pure sense, when galaxies collide, they really miss each other, very few stars actually collide. They are so far apart, nearly all of them miss each other, responding more to the general impetus of the governing dark matter cloud surrounding both. Your animation shown gives a fair representation of Andromeda and the Milky Way joining in a few billion years. It will be a spectacular thing to see in the night sky but might otherwise be fairly uneventful for anyone still alive unless the Sun or Earth are ultimately flung far away or the solar system disrupted/broken up.

Two Black Holes orbiting each other are an excellent radio generator and two super-massive black holes with event horizons roughly the size of the Earth at that distance will eventually merge in what is cosmologically the blink of an eye, probably why they are hard to find. They will eventually spiral down to fantastic orbital velocities with perhaps billions of solar masses moving at near luminal velocities for one of the most violent events the universe could have sending out waves and waves of gravitational disturbance. Pretty fantastic thing to see if we could.

 

[IsaacNewton]

I've always thought the term 'Supermassive Black Hole' was an oxymoron. A collapsed star so dense no matter can escape its gravity, not even light. But this thing is huge? So its gravity isn't such that it cannot continue to add mass and grow.

Just seems weird. Apparently there is no limit to the amount of gravity an object can have in this universe.

 

[toobfreak]

I've always thought the term 'Supermassive Black Hole' was an oxymoron. A collapsed star so dense no matter can escape its gravity, not even light. But this thing is huge? So its gravity isn't such that it cannot continue to add mass and grow.

Just seems weird. Apparently there is no limit to the amount of gravity an object can have in this universe.

No limit. After all, the theorized "Big Bang" started as an infinitesimal object of infinite mass. A Black Hole is a Singularity---- effectively smaller than the head of a pin. The "size" of a black hole refers to the distance away its Event Horizon is, that point where any closer, you would have to exceed the speed of light in order to escape its pull.

Now the logical questions are: What is the field of Dark Matter surrounding a Supermassive Black Hole, and why, affected by gravity, it is not pulled in like atomic matter. Answer: because Dark Matter is not affected by gravity but rather is a function of it.

 

[IsaacNewton]

I've always thought the term 'Supermassive Black Hole' was an oxymoron. A collapsed star so dense no matter can escape its gravity, not even light. But this thing is huge? So its gravity isn't such that it cannot continue to add mass and grow.

Just seems weird. Apparently there is no limit to the amount of gravity an object can have in this universe.

No limit. After all, the theorized "Big Bang" started as an infinitesimal object of infinite mass. A Black Hole is a Singularity---- effectively smaller than the head of a pin. The "size" of a black hole refers to the distance away its Event Horizon is, that point where any closer, you would have to exceed the speed of light in order to escape its pull.

Now the logical questions are: What is the field of Dark Matter surrounding a Supermassive Black Hole, and why, affected by gravity, it is not pulled in like atomic matter. Answer: because Dark Matter is not affected by gravity but rather is a function of it.

The Big Bang singularity existed in a state other than this universe, the laws that govern the universe were not in place so comparison to it is nonsequitor. My statement remains and it is purely rhetorical. A super massive black hole seems to be opposite logic. Unless as I said there is no limit to gravity in the universe and there is a limit to how compact gravity can crush matter which appears to be the case as well. No limit to the amount of gravity but a limit on gravity's ability to compact matter. Almost a governor for those who know motors.

My own theory was that black holes were what caused singularities to expand into other universes when the gravitational force passed a certain thresh-hold. But there appears to be no thresh-hold unless even the largest black holes we've discovered just aren't large enough yet. Interesting field of study, I imagine physicists are like kids in a candy store when they find new information about black holes.

 

[toobfreak]

I've always thought the term 'Supermassive Black Hole' was an oxymoron. A collapsed star so dense no matter can escape its gravity, not even light. But this thing is huge? So its gravity isn't such that it cannot continue to add mass and grow.

Just seems weird. Apparently there is no limit to the amount of gravity an object can have in this universe.

No limit. After all, the theorized "Big Bang" started as an infinitesimal object of infinite mass. A Black Hole is a Singularity---- effectively smaller than the head of a pin. The "size" of a black hole refers to the distance away its Event Horizon is, that point where any closer, you would have to exceed the speed of light in order to escape its pull.

Now the logical questions are: What is the field of Dark Matter surrounding a Supermassive Black Hole, and why, affected by gravity, it is not pulled in like atomic matter. Answer: because Dark Matter is not affected by gravity but rather is a function of it.

The Big Bang singularity existed in a state other than this universe, the laws that govern the universe were not in place so comparison to it is nonsequitor. My statement remains and it is purely rhetorical. A super massive black hole seems to be opposite logic. Unless as I said there is no limit to gravity in the universe and there is a limit to how compact gravity can crush matter which appears to be the case as well. No limit to the amount of gravity but a limit on gravity's ability to compact matter. Almost a governor for those who know motors.

My own theory was that black holes were what caused singularities to expand into other universes when the gravitational force passed a certain thresh-hold. But there appears to be no thresh-hold unless even the largest black holes we've discovered just aren't large enough yet. Interesting field of study, I imagine physicists are like kids in a candy store when they find new information about black holes.

I would be careful not to confuse the Big Bang with a singularity. Black Holes are real while the Big Bang is purely hypothetical. We can't say for sure what "state" the Big Bang existed in as it is more of an /event/ than it is an object, but I would agree that it wasn't in this universe since the universe itself was an expansion rising out of it. There is no known limit to gravity and matter falling into a Black Hole is crushed below any measurable level into a state outside our understanding of physics. Matter in a Neutron Star is already crushed as densely as is possible for normal matter. As to where that matter goes in a black hole, whether there is a limit or anything, other universes, etc., now you've crossed over into pure speculation that might remain purely unknowable to us, but some people have speculated that the matter resurfaces elsewhere in other points of space and time in what are called "white holes." Nice to think about.

One of the problems with Black Holes are their sizes: We have "regular" solar mass black holes, then there are the super-massive ones, but the universe isn't old enough for them to have built up via accretion alone, there must be other things at play.