Scientists have discovered two supermassive black holes that have been circling each other for billions of years.
The two monsters, which have been the heaviest black hole pair astronomers have found so far, weigh the same as 28 billion suns. Their combined mass is so big, they refuse to merge and collide.
The black holes, inside the ‘fossil’ galaxy B2 0402+379, have been circling each other for years, but are just 24 light-years apart. They are the closest pair ever spotted.
Despite being so close, the black hole binary is locked in its position, they are no longer edging closer and has been doing the same dance for 3 billion years. Astronomers are unsure if it’ll continue to the end of time or if they’ll collide with a monster crash.
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Black holes are created after giant stars collapse, they grow by feasting on gas, dust, stars or even other black holes, if they dare to get too close. However, astronomers are still scratching their heads over where the first black holes came from.
There have been theories suggesting the very first were created from clouds of dust and cold gas, that grew into stars so big they were doomed to collapse, with past simulations referring to this theory as the ‘cosmic dawn’. It claims black holes kept increasing in size, with gas trailing behind and around them that eventually collapsed into the first stars of dwarf galaxies.
It’s also suggested as the universe grew, black holes inside the dwarf galaxies combined with others to get bigger – supermassive black holes – and in turn formed bigger galaxies.
Scientists sifted through data collected by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to find the dueling black hole pair seen above. They found light, from suns, accelerating around the two monsters by using the telescope’s spectograph to break light from stars into distinct colors.
Then astronomers found the ‘fossil cluster’ after an entire galaxy cluster combined into one enormous galaxy.
The remarkable discovery was published in the Astrophysical Journal.
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Co-author Roger Romani, physics professor at Stanford University, said: “Normally it seems that galaxies with lighter black hole pairs have enough stars and mass to drive the two together quickly.
“Since this pair is so heavy it required lots of stars and gas to get the job done. But the binary has scoured the central galaxy of such matter, leaving it stalled.”
He added: “The excellent sensitivity of GMOS allowed us to map the stars’ increasing velocities as one looks closer to the galaxy’s center.
“With that, we were able to infer the total mass of the black holes residing there.”
Scientists think the gigantic black hole duo have remained as they are for 3 billion years because they’re so massive, nothing can slow them down.
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