2 supermassive black holes are only 2 years in orbit

Two studies The exact shape of the gravitational waves was discovered on Earth by Lego and Virgo M87 * Pictures taken by members of the collaboration Event Horizon Telescope Gave us the most convincing arguments for the existence of black holes Not decisive yet. There are less reasons for suspicion behind the active centers Constellations Hide from Larger black holes From one million to several billion Masses Sun light.

However, we are particularly aware of it because of the pictures taken with it Telescope Hubble says that there are collisions between large galaxies, and that there is every reason to believe that all large galaxies have very large black holes. Even the calculations Digital Rather than theoretical, for example, based on genre Friction Payable attraction a Gas OfStars Another in one galaxy Star When it passes, show it Merging In two large galaxies, their largest black holes end in sediment, so that in the center of the resulting galaxy, one can observe galaxies with two massive black holes at their center.

Jean-Pierre Luminet, CNRS’s research director, and Franசois Combs, a professor at the College of France, tell us about black holes. © Hugot Foundation of the College of France

A metronome blazer

As has been proven by the team, it has been for some timeAstronomers In a publication that can be read arXiv And that Goes On top of that Blazer PKS 2131-021 contains about 9 billionLight years Of Milky Way. Remember that step The integrated model (AGN) of the Active Galaxy Nucleus has recently received a new justificationThe blazars are simply there QuasarsSo a lot of spinning supermassive black holes accumulate Thing Emits terrible waves for this reasonEnergyJets of matter are accidentally directed in or near our direction.

Explained in a press release from Jet Propulsion Laboratory Of NASAPKS 2131-021 is one of 1,800 blazers Body Gip Thorne And Richard FeynmanKeep track ofRadio Watch Owens Valley in Northern California. The Astronomers Blaser had been studying it for 13 years as part of a general study of behavior. But this particular blazer revealed a strange behavior: it Brightness Shows regular ups and downs that can be guessed like the ticking of a clock.

Presentation of the invention made by Blazer PKS 2131-021. It is a black hole surrounded by an agglomeration disk in which the relative jets of matter oscillate because Blazer forms a pair with another black hole. © Caltech

Black hole connection in 10,000 years

This is Roger Blandford, Co-author with Gip Thorne Physics article And above all he is an expert in black hole physics, almost 45 years ago with his colleague Roman Snaje he proposed one of the best models to illustrate quasar jets, which was able to understand what was going on in the case of PKS 2131-021. A binary black hole. It was caused almost entirely by sinusoidal oscillations in the brightness of the blazer MovementHe dances Around the circular path With his companion.

We are not alone in the presence of a definitive second established example of the existence of a binary supermassive black hole in the heart of a galaxy (First OJ 287), But it broke a record, because integrated studies at the end of 45 years of observations of PKS 2131-021 in various ways show that we were in a very short period of time. Orbital period For this kind of star, only about two years. Then the diameter of the orbit will be 10 to 100 times smaller than OJ 287.

Both stars already have significant levels to loseGravitational waves This, as is the case Star black holes Diagnosed with Ligo and The sign of Virgo, Lead them to unite. But it will not be 10,000 years from now. So it is not possible to attend the event with humanity Eliza is the inventor. About 100 million years are thought to have passed between the beginning of the fusion of two galaxies and the final fusion of their largest black holes. In the case of PKS 2131-021, it is estimated that each of the smaller bodies involved contains hundreds of millions of solar masses. Let’s remember that The central black hole of the Milky Way There is only a little over 4 million.

Franோois Combs, a professor at the College of France, talks about gigantic black holes. © Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL

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