Two Massive Black Holes are Predicted to Collide

In an effect that the researchers compared to the Doppler effect, when the brighter black hole orbits closer to us, we get more of its light, as it moves further it dims. Sure enough, when Haiman and his colleagues examined images of PG 1302-102 collected by NASA’s Hubble and GALEX space telescopes, they observed periodic variations in the quasar’s UV light spectra that followed a five year cycle. Back then, they estimated that the two celestial formations were at a distance of 20 light-years away from each other, so they would require approximately 100,000 light years before they collided. They proposed that the light from the quasar is coming from a disc of gas surrounding the smaller of the two black holes.

Earlier this year, astronomers discovered the black holes set on a collision course that would be so powerful that it would send a burst of gravitational waves surging through the fabric of space-time itself.

The center of giant galaxies has in its centre a supermassive black hole.

That flickering has been interpreted as two black holes that are circling one another (trust them on this) with a total mass of more than a billion suns, said the Times. Now, using a simple optical trick, a team of astronomers finds strong evidence to support the existence of a black hole pair whose members are only a light-week apart – nearly a thousand times closer than any other pair of black holes we know of.

The gravitational waves emitted by the impending collision will reveal information about many of the universe’s mysteries. “Watching this process reach its culmination can tell us whether black holes and galaxies grow at the same rate, and ultimately test a fundamental property of space-time: its ability to carry vibrations called gravitational waves, produced in the last, most violent stage of the merger”. He added that considering the reasonable assumption of the mass of the 2 black holes, the model presented now predicts the ultraviolet data correctly. However when two black holes approach one another, the quasars flicker at regular intervals.

An uptick in the number of black hole binary discoveries has made astronomers hopeful that a collision could be detected in the next decade.

Other researchers have confirmed the results of the Graham’s work with their own studies. In addition, it helps researchers probe gravitational waves, which allows them to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity. D’Orazio, who is the study’s lead author, also adds that getting there would be the holy grail in his field.