Astronomers Spot Two Supermassive Black Holes, Nearing Collision in Space

Astronomers have sighted two supermassive black holes that are nearing collision in space, and this is the closest that has been ever seen, according to PhysOrg.

The Newly-Discovered Supermassive Black Holes

The black holes are 750 light-years apart but won't merge for a few hundred million years. They inhabit a mix of two galaxies that collide around 480 million light-years away from Earth. Both clock in at 200 million and 125 million times the mass of the Earth's sun.

The two met due to their host galaxies smashed into each other. Eventually, they will start circling each other as the orbit tightens due to the gas and stars passing between the two black holes and stealing orbital energy.

Then, the black holes will begin producing gravitational waves stronger than any that have been previously detected before they crash into each other. You can view the supermassive black holes here.

Still, the discovery is helpful as this will help astronomers better estimate the number of supermassive black holes also nearing collision in space.

With a ballpark figure, it will help astronomers listen to the intense ripples in space-time, which are known as gravitational waves. The largest gravitational waves are produced by supermassive black holes close to a collision following galaxy mergers.

Detecting the gravitational-wave background will improve estimates of how many galaxies have collided and merged in the universe's entire history.

What makes this current event exciting is true to the short distance between the newly discovered black holes, which is close to the limit of what they can detect.

However, with the small separation between the black holes, astronomers can only differentiate between two objects by combining observations from seven telescopes, among the telescopes that will be used in NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Supermassive Black Holes

Supermassive black holes are located in the center of most galaxies and contain millions to billions of solar masses of material. This is why astronomers say that black holes can weigh millions to billions of times more than the sun.

On average, the supermassive black holes are located 26 thousand light-years away from the center of the galaxies they inhabit. The supermassive black holes that are located in the very center of the galaxies have masses that can contain billions of solar masses.

While there are a lot of supermassive black holes in space and also in the center of galaxies, only a handful are in the position of circling each other. Supermassive black holes in the galaxies' center have such a small separation that they crash together in a few million years.