Supermassive Black Holes about to Collide - video

[ilan]

Watch, as black holes spiral closer
Deborah Byrd in SPACE | October 6, 2018

A new simulation by scientists lets you witness supermassive black holes about to collide. One shows them from outside the system, just 40 orbits from merging. The other places you in their midst.

NASA released the two videos on this page on October 2, 2018. Both are based on a new computer simulation by scientists, showing what happens when two supermassive black holes orbit closely, spiraling toward each other before merging. The scientific simulation is described in a paper published this month in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal. The new work depicts three orbits of a pair of supermassive black holes, only 40 orbits from merging. The videos on this page stem from this simulation, and they’re a lot of fun to watch!

Meanwhile, scientists are most excited by new results of the work, showing which kinds of light – mostly ultraviolet (UV) light with some high-energy X-rays – are emitted as two supermassive black holes spiral closer. They’re excited because – if scientists can understand what to look for – they might be able to observe supermassive black holes prior to merging. They haven’t accomplished this yet or anything close to it; in fact, so far, although supermassive black hole mergers should be relatively common in space, astronomers haven’t yet observed one. What’s been seen, so far, are gravitational waves originating in the merger of two stellar-mass black holes. More about that below.

These researchers said that, based on their new simulation, they expect X-rays emitted by a near-merger of supermassive black holes will be brighter and more variable than X-rays seen from single supermassive black holes. NASA also said in a statement that the new simulation:

… fully incorporates the physical effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

And that’s why, for example, in the video above, we see complex effects caused by gravitational lensing, when one supermassive black hole passes in front of the other. The degree to which light is bent can be predicted via Einstein’s theory.Scientists also said some exotic features came as a surprise, such as the eyebrow-shaped shadows one black hole occasionally creates near the horizon of the other.

Scientists also said some exotic features came as a surprise, such as the eyebrow-shaped shadows one black hole occasionally creates near the horizon of the other.
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I could only put one video in this post. The one I included is the most instructive of the two. - ilan