According to a statement issued by the Municipal University of New Yorkthe researchers ruled out other possibilities before they could relate the recorded light to that shock. Alternative options included the involvement of a supernova and a scenario in which the tidal forces from one of the holes destroyed a neighboring star, but both hypotheses were eventually discarded.
Both black holes rotated together within a giant disk of gas and dust at the moment the light was emitted. However, the hole resulting from the merger reportedly left that disc and its release ended the flare some 40 days after the first sighting.
In the opinion of the scientific team, this movement has nothing extraordinary, since during the fusion, the celestial object receives a “kick” that sends it in a random direction and crosses the disk. “It is the reaction of the gas to this high-speed bullet that creates a bright flare, visible with telescopes,” explained astrophysics professor Barry McKernan, a research participant.
According to scientists’ estimates, the new black hole has a mass of about 150 solar masses.
