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Credit & Copyright: NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center;
Music:
In the Hall of the Mountain King by
Edvard Grieg
Explanation:
Do black holes glow when they collide?
When merging, co-orbiting
black holes are sure to emit a burst of unusual
gravitational radiation, but will they emit
light, well before that,
if they are
surrounded by gas?
To help find out,
astrophysicists created a
sophisticated computer simulation.
The simulation and featured
resulting video accurately depicts two spiraling
supermassive black holes, including the effects of
Einstein's general relativity on the surrounding gas and light.
The video
first shows the system from the top, and later from the side where unusual
gravitational lens distortions are more prominent.
Numerical results indicate that gravitational and magnetic forces should energize
the gas to emit high-energy light from the
ultraviolet
to the X-ray.
The emission of such light may enable humanity to
detect and study supermassive
black hole pairs well before they spiral together.
Open Science:
Browse 1,800+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: black hole
Publications with words: black hole
See also:
- APOD: 2024 November 24 Á Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
- APOD: 2024 October 1 Á Porphyrion: The Longest Known Black Hole Jets
- APOD: 2024 June 16 Á Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star
- Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
- The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
- APOD: 2024 May 8 Á Visualization: A Black Hole Accretion Disk
- APOD: 2024 May 7 Á Black Hole Accreting with Jet