A supermassive black hole hurtling through space
Black holes are some of the most fascinating and astonishing objects in the universe. They’re
extremely dense, with such strong gravitational field that even light cannot escape them. What if
we tell you that there is a blackhole that is hurtling through space at 110,000 mph.
Seems unbelievable, right? Well scientists have discovered a blackhole that is speeding through
speed at such a great speed. So just sit back and relax and watch the video till the end,
to learn some mind-boggling things about this new discovery made by scientists.
Supermassive blackholes are one of the most provoking and challenging astronomical objects
in the universe. Not much is known about them except that they are huge and present
at the centre of every galaxy. They are some of the most extreme systems in the universe,
and to date, we have no good explanation for their existence. Their formation in
the early universe is a very compelling question that scientists look to answer.
The first billion years of the universe were chaotic. It is though that the first black holes
were formed by the collapse of the first stars and must have grown very fast to reach a billion
solar masses. But a lot is yet to be discovered about these enormous objects in the universe.
We know that everything in space is moving. But astronomers have always wondered if it were
possible for a supermassive blackhole- the massive structures present at the centre of every galaxy-
to move relative to their host galaxies. Until now, astronomers were not sure.
Such movement would be tough for massive objects like supermassive black holes,
which can outweigh our sun by millions of times. Now a recent study by astronomers points to a very
convincing case of a supermassive blackhole on the move. The mass of the blackhole is
three times the mass of sun and is zipping through the centre of galaxy, J0437+2456,
which is located at a distance of about 70 Mpc. The movement of supermassive blackhole
is rare because their enormous mass requires an equally enormous force to get them moving.
Take an example of how difficult it is to kick a bowling ball into motion than it is to kick a
soccer ball. So, in this case, the bowling ball is several million times the mass of our sun and will
require a pretty mighty kick. The research paper of the discovery, published on the Astrophysical
Journal, states, “Deep observations of the Galaxy J0437+2456, with Arecibo observatory have
detected neutral hydrogen emission, from which the velocity of the galaxy was found to be 4910 km/s.
Also, the observations of the Galactic nucleus with the Gemini North telescope show a central
velocity of 4860 km/s of the innermost radii. The two measurements also differ significantly from
one another, and the galaxy as a whole exhibits a complex velocity structure that implies that the
system has recently been dynamically disturbed”. These statements clearly tell us that the
supermassive blackhole at the centre of the galaxy is not at rest and is hurtling through space.
In a statement by Dominic Pesce, a study leader and astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian
Center for astrophysics, he stated that scientists don’t expect a lot of supermassive blackholes
to be moving, they’re usually believed to just sit around. Scientist have long theorised that
blackholes could move. To begin their search for this rare occurrence, the researchers compared
the velocities of 10 supermassive blackholes with galaxies they were at the centre of,
mainly focusing on the blackholes with water inside their accretion disks--
a flattened band of spinning matter around the event horizon of a blackhole.
But you might ask a question, Why Water? The answer is quite subtle. As water present in
the accretion disk orbits a blackhole, it collides with other material, and the electrons surrounding
the oxygen and hydrogen atoms that make up water molecules get excited to higher energy levels.
When these electron beam of laser-like microwave radiation called a maser.
Now with the help of Red-shift, the wavelength of the light is stretched, so the light is seen
as 'shifted' towards the red part of the spectrum (Something identical happens to sound waves when
a source of sound moves relative to an observer). The astronomers were able to observe the extent to
which the light of the maser from the accretion disk was shifted away from its known frequency,
and hence were able to calculate the speed of the moving blackhole.
The astronomers then took more observations from various telescopes and combined them all using a
method called very long baseline interferometry or VLBI. With the help of this technique,
the scientists were able to combine the images from several telescopes to effectively act
like an image captured by a very large telescope, about the size of the distance between them.
In this way, scientists were able to measure the precise velocity of the blackhole.
For five years, Dominic Pesce and his colleagues have been studying and comparing the motions of 10
galaxies and of the supermassive blackholes present at their centres. Usually, these
supermassive blackholes are expected to have the same velocities as the galaxies they are in, but
if they don't, this implies that they have been disturbed. Of all the 10 galaxies they observed,
9 of them were resting within their respective galaxies, but one was on the move. What could have
caused the disturbance of the supermassive blackhole inside the galaxy J0437+2456,
enough to set it hurtling through space? Why this supermassive blackhole of this distant galaxy
moving? The researchers don’t know what could have made such a heavy object move at such a high
speed, but they came up with a few possibilities. In a statement by Jim Condon, a radio astronomer
at the national radio astronomy observer, he said that. “We may be observing the aftermath of two
supermassive blackholes merging. The result of such a merger can cause the Newborn blackhole
to recoil, and we may be in fact watching an act of recoiling as it settles down again”.
Earlier in April 2019, Gravitational waves from a Collison between two blackholes
were detected at the gravitational wave observatory LIGO (United States) and the
detector Virgo (Italy). This was one of the major breakthroughs in astronomy.
The other possibility is considered by astronomers to be much rarer in our universe:
The supermassive blackhole may be part of a pair with another blackhole that's invisible to their
observations and measurements. Scientists have always expected that binary blackholes might be
out there in some abundance, but have had a hard time observing and identifying clear examples of
binary supermassive blackholes. According to Pesce, “we might be seeing a binary blackhole pair
in galaxy J0437+2456, with the other blackhole that is hidden to our radio observations
because of its lack of maser emission”. It is possible that this blackhole is being tugged by
an even bigger blackhole that is invisible to us and this might explain why its traveling so fast.
And there’s a third possibility. The supermassive blackhole could come from
another galaxy that is in the process of merging with J0437+2456. So, the galaxy J0437+2456
might not be the black hole's home galaxy even though we see it in J0437+2456 right now. So,
more observations will be necessary to get to the bottom of the mystery and figure what's going on.
But the bottom line is that astronomers have discovered a black hole that is moving within
its host galaxy. We might see more research on this discovery in the future so stay tuned.
So, what do you guys think about this discovery? Do u know the difference
between a stellar blackhole and supermassive blackhole. Let us know us views and answers
in the comment section. And don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel
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