We might be witnessing the fate of our own galaxy.
The observation of the cosmos is a homework tan complicated as are the instruments created by the human being to discover their secrets, as can be the case of the NuSTAR telescope. Through dozens of these instruments, in the ALMA international observatory In Chile, a group of scientists has discovered a couple of supermassive black holes located in the center of a newly merged galaxy. They are so close, in astronomical terms, that they can feed together.
Two black holes, the closest that have been located to date
Recently, through a publication in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal Letterswe have known the existence of binary black holesa set that is much closer than has ever been observed, being each other only 750 light years away. Of course, despite what it may seem, the merged galaxy, which is the one that has given rise to these black holes, is common in the universe. UGC 4211the name of this galaxy, is the ideal place for study what the final stages of a merger are like of these sets of celestial bodies, as stated in the website of Eurekalert.
The galaxy it’s found located 500 million light years from Earth, in the constellation Cancer. When the group of scientists used the SOUL instruments for explore the core of the galaxy, they ran into the surprise of not one, but two black holes that were feeding at the same time of the remains that had been caused in the merger. Michael Kosslead author of the study, affirms what:
ALMA is unique in that it can see through large plumes of gas and dust and achieve very high spatial resolution to see things close together. Our study has identified one of the closest pairs of black holes in a galaxy merger, and since we know that galaxy mergers are more common in the distant Universe, these black hole binaries may be more common than we had thought. .
The study not only has present implications, but also is serving to understand the future merger what seems to happen between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxywhich is already in its early stages, although you have no reason to worry, since it is scheduled to happen 4.5 billion years from now. Joe FishNational Science Foundation Astrophysicist, affirms what:
This fascinating discovery shows us the power of ALMA and how multi-wavelength astronomy can yield important results that expand our knowledge of the universe, including black holes, active galaxy nuclei, galaxy evolution and much more.
