A recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters claims that a distant flashing light in the depths of space could be an indication of two black holes in the final stages of merging. One of the co-authors of the recent study, Astronomy Professor Suvi Gezari, claims that “we have observed two supermassive black holes in closer proximity than ever before.”
The flashing light is the result of the surrounding matter of a black hole being heated and accelerated to such an extant that it emits electromagnetic energy which creates some of the brightest objects in the night sky, quasars. According to Phys.Org, when two black holes orbit as a binary, they absorb matter cyclically, leading theorists to predict that the binary’s quasar would respond by periodically brightening and dimming.
According to the studies first author, graduate astronomy student Tingting Liu, this “adds to our limited knowledge.”
The discovery of a compact binary candidate supermassive black hole system (…) which appears to be at such close orbital separation, adds to our limited knowledge of the end stages of the merger between supermassive black holes.
The researchers plan to continue searching for these regularly emitting quasars and by 2023 their search could be aided with the addition of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which as Liu says will “allow us to watch a movie of how these systems evolve.”
These telescopes allow us to watch a movie of how these systems evolve, What’s really cool is that we may be able to watch the orbital separation of these supermassive black holes get smaller and smaller until they merge.
In other astronomy news, NASA scanned 100,000 galaxies and found possible alien life.
