Scientists announce discovery of supermassive binary black holes
Two black holes orbiting one another eventually will merge

Date:
March 11, 2022
Source:
Purdue University
Summary:
Researchers have discovered a supermassive black hole binary system,
one of only two known such systems.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of researchers from Purdue University and other institutions have discovered a supermassive black hole binary system, one of only two known
such systems. The two black holes, which orbit each other, likely weigh
100 million suns each. One of the black holes powers a massive jet that
moves outward at very close to the speed of light. The system is so far
away that the visible light seen today was emitted 8.8 billion years ago.


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The two are only between 200 AU and 2,000 AU apart (one AU is the distance
from the Earth to the sun), at least 10 times closer than the only other
known supermassive binary black hole system.

The close separation is significant because such systems are expected
to merge eventually. That event will release a massive amount of energy
in the form of gravitational waves, causing ripples in space in every
direction (and oscillations in matter) as the waves pass through.

Finding systems like this is also important for understanding the
processes by which galaxies formed and how they ended up with massive
black holes at their centers.

Methods Researchers serendipitously discovered the system when they
noticed a repeating sinusoidal pattern in its radio brightness emission variations over time, based on data taken after 2008. A subsequent
search of historical data revealed that the system also was varying in
the same manner in the late 1970s to early 1980s. That type of variation
is exactly what researchers would expect if the jetted emission from one
black hole is affected by the Doppler effect due to its orbital motion
as it swings around the other black hole.

Matthew Lister in the College of Science at Purdue University and his
team imaged the system from 2002 to 2012, but the team's radio telescope
lacks the resolution to resolve the individual black holes at such a
large distance. His imaging data supports the binary black hole scenario
and also provides the orientation angle of the jetted outflow, which
is a critical component in the paper's model for the Doppler-induced variations.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Purdue_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Two_supermassive_black_holes_orbit_one_another_in_a_binary_system ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. S. O'Neill, S. Kiehlmann, A. C. S. Readhead, M. F. Aller, R. D.

Blandford, I. Liodakis, M. L. Lister, P. Mro'z, C. P. O'Dea, T. J.

Pearson, V. Ravi, M. Vallisneri, K. A. Cleary, M. J. Graham,
K. J. B.

Grainge, M. W. Hodges, T. Hovatta, A. La"hteenma"ki, J. W. Lamb,
T. J. W.

Lazio, W. Max-Moerbeck, V. Pavlidou, T. A. Prince, R. A. Reeves, M.

Tornikoski, P. Vergara de la Parra, J. A. Zensus. The Unanticipated
Phenomenology of the Blazar PKS 2131-021: A Unique Supermassive
Black Hole Binary Candidate. The Astrophysical Journal Letters,
2022; 926 (2): L35 DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac504b ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220311182508.htm

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