Astronomers saw a black hole in motion.
Supermassive black holes In general, you stand as you suck everything in your path, but scientists have long believed that it is possible to wander through space. They just never properly caught one in the act – until now.
Researchers and the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest example to date black hole in motion, publishing his findings in the Astrophysics Journal. About 230 million light-years away, in the center of a galaxy called J0437 + 2456, the team found what they were looking for.
“We don’t expect most supermassive black holes to move; they usually just sit there,” lead author Dominic Pesce said in a press release. “They are so heavy that it’s hard to let them go. Consider how difficult it is to move a bowling ball than to throw a soccer ball – realizing that in this case, the” bowling ball “is a few million times the mass of our Sun. It will take a pretty strong blow. “
The team studied 10 distant galaxies and their supermassive black holes, especially those containing water, in the last five years. They were able to accurately measure the speed of a black hole based on water that orbits the black hole, which produces a measurable beam of radio light laser, known as a “maser.”
“I asked, ‘Is the speed of black holes the same as the speed of the galaxies I live in?’ Pesce explained. “We expect them to have the same speed. Otherwise, that means the black hole has been disturbed.”
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Nine of the 10 black holes were resting – but one seemed to be moving.
Follow the comments with Arecibo The observatory in Puerto Rico, before its collapse, and the Observatory of Gemini in Hawaii and Chile confirmed the conclusions: The black hole, which has a mass 3 million times the mass of our sun, moves about 110,000 miles per hour in inside its galaxy. .
Scientists have two theories for the wandering black hole. A possibility? A collision.
“We may notice the consequences of the two supermassive black holes merging,” said co-author Jim Condon. “The result of such a merger may cause the newborn black hole to recede and we may follow it in the act of withdrawal or as it settles again.”
Scientists also believe that the black hole may be part of a pair.
“Despite all expectations that it should really be in abundance, scientists have had difficulty identifying clear examples of binary supermassive black holes,” says Pesce. “What we could see in the galaxy J0437 + 2456 is one of the black holes in such a pair, the other remaining hidden from our radio observations due to the lack of maser emission.”
More observations are needed to understand the true cause of the specific movement.