Earlier this week, researchers have discovered two binary black holes in Markarian 231, the quasar nearest Earth. A quasar is an active galaxy with an illuminated center, which is short lived compared to the age of the universe. The existence of these was predicted through a study made by Drs. Chang-Shuo Yan, Youjun Lu, Xingyu Dai and Quingjuan Yu, by observing ultraviolet radiation emitted through the Hubble telescope, developing a model to fit that spectrum and then applying it.
WHY ARE BINARY BLACK HOLES FASCINATING?
Great effort has been made during the past several decades to search for BBHs among quasars; however, observational evidence for BBHs remains elusive and ambiguous, which is difficult to reconcile with theoretical expectations, and this is why this study is so ground-breaking. It gives us new insight in what these light shows mean and what kind of objects orbit around it.
CHINESE EBULLINET ABOUT SUPERMASSIVE DUO
“We are extremely excited about this finding because it not only shows the existence of a close binary black hole in Mrk 231, but also paves a new way to systematically search binary black holes via the nature of their ultraviolet light emission,” Lu, National Astronomical Observatories of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, declared in the news release pertaining to the discovery. Dai goes on to say that “The structure of our universe, such as those giant galaxies and clusters of galaxies, grows by merging smaller systems into larger ones, and binary black holes are natural consequences of these mergers of galaxies.”
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
What does this existence of these binary black holes mean to Earth? For now, not much. Throughout interviews and press releases, the team of astrophysicists announced that the two binary black holes will eventually merge into a quasar with one supermassive black hole sorely outclassing the earlier two, which would cause a brilliant outburst of light, illuminating objects still left to be identified. Regardless of what the future will bring, this study certainly reveals some of the keys to the evolution of these young galaxies.
A complete report of the results of this study were published in the August 14th edition of the Astrophysical Journal.
