Astronomers have seen a black hole along the way.
Supermassive black holes generally stay in place while sucking up whatever comes their way, but scientists have long believed it was possible for them to wander through space. They just never caught one in the act – until now.
Researchers and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest example of one to date black hole in motion and publish their findings in The Astrophysical Journal. About 230 million light years away, in the center of a galaxy called J0437 + 2456, the team found what they were looking for.
“We don’t expect the majority of supermassive black holes to move; they are usually content to just stay put,” lead author Dominic Pesce said in a press release. “They’re just so heavy it’s hard to get them going. Think how much harder it is to get a bowling ball moving than kicking a soccer ball – you realize that in this case the ‘ bowling ball “is millions of times the mass of our sun. It takes quite a powerful kick.”
The team has 10 distant galaxies and their supermassive black holes, especially those with water, over the past five years. They were able to accurately measure the speed of a black hole based on the water orbiting the black hole, which produces a measurable laser-like beam of radio light called a “maser.”
“We asked, are the speeds of the black holes the same as the speeds of the galaxies they are in?” Pesce explained. ‘We expect them to have the same speed. If they don’t, it means the black hole has been disrupted. ‘
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Nine of the 10 black holes were resting – but one appeared to be moving.
Follow-up observations with the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, before its collapse, and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Chile confirmed the findings: The black hole, which has a mass 3 million times that of our sun, is moving at about 110,000 miles per hour in its galaxy.
Scientists have two theories for the wandering black hole. A possibility? A collision.
“We may be observing the aftermath of two supermassive black holes merging,” said study co-author Jim Condon. “The result of such a fusion can make the newborn black hole recoil, and we can watch it recoil or settle down.”
Scientists also think it is possible that the black hole may be part of a pair.
“Despite all expectations that they really should be plentiful, scientists have had a hard time identifying clear examples of binary supermassive black holes,” said Pesce. “What we might see in the galaxy J0437 + 2456 is one of the black holes in such a pair, while the other remains hidden from our radio observations due to the lack of maser emission.”
More observations are needed to understand the true cause of the idiosyncratic movement.