American astronomers from Stanford University examined the heaviest pair of black holes ever found. The object is located in elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. The study was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Astrophysical Journal (TAJ).
Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. When two galaxies merge, their black holes can form a binary pair, meaning they are in a locked orbit with each other. It is assumed that these binary systems will eventually merge, but this has never been observed before.
The team used data from the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to analyze the binary black hole. Both holes are 24 light-years away from each other and have remained that way for more than three billion years. The total mass of the objects is 28 billion times the mass of our Sun.
With new information about the system’s extremely large mass, astronomers concluded that an extraordinarily large number of stars would be required to slow the binary system’s orbit enough to bring it so close. In doing so, black holes apparently eject nearly all matter from their surroundings, leaving the galactic core devoid of stars and gas. Their merger stalled at the final stage as there was no other material to further slow the pair’s orbit.
If the pair eventually merged, the event would create gravitational waves 100 million times stronger than the waves produced by the merger of ordinary black holes, scientists said.
Previous researchers discovered The consequences of one of the most powerful black hole explosions in the history of the universe.
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Source: Gazeta
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