“We don’t expect most supermassive black holes to move; they are usually content to just sit around, ”Pesce said in a statement. “They are so heavy that it is difficult to let them go. Consider how difficult it is to throw a bowling ball in motion 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 fairly strong blow. ”
Pesce said in an email that the results of the study are significant in two ways.
“At the surface level, these findings are significant for adding a data point to our almost empty list of currently known mobile supermassive black holes,” he said. “Looking at a slightly larger image, these mobile devices [black holes] there is evidence of the growth of supermassive black holes in action. A supermassive black hole moving relative to the host galaxy is a strong indication that the system is either about to experience a binary fusion of the supermassive black hole, or has done so recently.
In both cases, the movement provides “interesting indirect evidence for reality” of supermassive black hole mergers, he said.
The black hole in the center of this study is in a galaxy called J0437 + 2456, 230 million light-years from Earth. The mass of the black hole is three million times that of the sun.
The researchers observed supermassive black holes in the center of 10 galaxies and tried to discern their speed. In doing so, they discovered that one of the 10 black holes appeared to be moving.
“The fact that we seem to have discovered a supermassive black hole moving in such a small sample – especially when they overlap with previous searches that combed orders of magnitude with multiple objects and appeared empty-handed – implies the fact that it may not be so rare after all, ”he wrote.
Pesce quickly noticed that he was not the first person to suggest that black holes might move. He said it was an idea that scientists have been considering for years.
The study was conducted in two stages, Pesce said. First, the researchers identified which galaxies could be potential candidates for a supermassive black hole to move in their center. In that phase, J0437 + 2456 was identified as a very promising candidate. From there, they “followed dedicated observations of tracking J0437 + 2456 with the Arecibo and Gemini North telescopes, both to improve the accuracy of the initial measurement and to ensure that we were not fooled by the systematic effects that were specific to any class. measuring “, wrote Pesce.
Black holes are objects in space with such a strong gravitational pull that nothing can escape, according to NASA.
Charlie McKenna can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ charliemckenna9.