One of the most extreme black hole collisions in the universe just proved Albert Einstein right.
Scientists studying the consequences of a giant black hole collision may have confirmed the gravitational phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.
According to a new study published in the journal Nature, a phenomenon known as precession and similar to the wobble that is sometimes seen in a spinning top, occurred when two ancient black holes collided and merged into one. As the two huge objects orbited closer together, they emitted huge ripples through the fabric of spacetime, known as gravitational waves, that rushed outward through space, carrying energy and angular momentum away from the merging black holes.
Scientists first detected these waves, which come from black holes, in 2020 using the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and Virgo gravitational wave sensors in Italy. Now, after years of studying wave patterns, researchers have confirmed that one of the black holes was spinning at an incredible speed never seen before. The spinning black hole spun and rotated 10 billion times faster than any previously observed black hole, which warped space and time so severely that both black holes wobbled, or preceded, in their orbits.
Researchers have observed precession in everything from spindle tips to dying star systems, but they have never seen massive objects like binary black holes, in which two “cosmic vacuum cleaners” revolve around a common center. However, Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted over 100 years ago that precession should occur in objects as large as binary black holes. Now, the study authors say, this rare phenomenon is being observed in nature for the first time.
“We always thought that binary black holes could do that. We hoped to find an example from the first discovery of gravitational waves. We had to wait five years, but we finally have one! ”Study lead author Mark Hannam, director of the Gravity Research Institute at Cardiff University in the UK, said in a statement.
A new study in Nature suggests that two black holes were in a chaotic relationship before their violent merger. As the two giant objects pulled each other into an ever closer orbit, they began to wobble like peaks, preceding several times per second. This precession effect is estimated to be 10 billion times faster than any other effect ever measured, the scientists say.
These findings justify Einstein, who predicted such effects would be possible in some of the largest objects in the universe. But the findings also raise the question of whether unstable, shaky black hole mergers like this are really as rare as previously thought.
said the cursor Astronomers reveal when a pair of supermassive black holes could collide. The strange behavior of a galaxy a billion light years away suggests that one of the most anticipated events in modern astronomy could take place there.
Our editors wrote it scientists have said whether the Earth can leave our solar system.
Call this up scientists have found a new way to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
