Two giant black holes set to collide with each other. Details inside
1 min read . Updated: 28 Feb 2022, 07:20 PM IST
PremiumThe research says that these two supermassive black holes will merge in 10,000 years, the collision of which has the potential to send ripples across the universe
1916 was the year, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of black holes in the universe with his theory of relativity. In 1967, astronomer John Wheeler coined the term Black holes. A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing — no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light — can escape from it.
A team of astronomers at California Institute of Technology has found that two supermassive black holes, about 9 billion light-years away in deep space, are revolving around each other every two years, according to New York Post report.
The research says that these two supermassive black holes will merge in 10,000 years, the collision of which has the potential to send ripples across the universe.
The study, titled The Unanticipated Phenomenology of the Blazar PKS 2131–021: A Unique Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate, was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Watch the phenomenon here
The team of astronomers discovered evidence from a scenario taking place within a fiercely energetic object known as a quasar.
A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus, powered by supermassive black holes that are millions or billions of times more massive than the sun.
The quasar observed in the new study, PKS 2131-021, belongs to a subclass of quasars called blazars in which the jet is pointing toward the Earth.
Astronomers already knew quasars could possess two orbiting supermassive black holes, but finding direct evidence for this has proved difficult.
The researchers argue that PKS 2131-021, which has been observed for over 45 years, is now the second known quasar with a pair of supermassive black holes that are due to merge.
The first known quasar is dubbed OJ 287, and it possesses two black holes that are further apart and circle one another every nine years.
In the research it was said that each supermassive black hole has mass hundreds of millions of times greater than the mass of our Sun.
The bodies are separated by a distance of roughly 50 times that which separates our sun and Pluto. When the pair merge in roughly 10,000 years, the titanic collision is expected to shake space and time itself, sending gravitational waves across the universe.
