Bright lights detected by NASA telescopes lead to a dancing pair of supermassive black holes
Two telescopes have spotted the closest pair of supermassive black holes to date. The duo, only about 300 light-years apart, were observed in different wavelengths of light using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.
While black holes are invisible against the dark void of space, these two blaze brightly as the gas and dust they feed on is accelerated and heated to high temperatures. Both celestial objects, which circle around one another, are known as active galactic nuclei.
Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes that release bright jets of material and high winds that can shape the very galaxies where they are found.
The black hole duo is the closest pair found through visible and X-ray light. While other black hole pairs have been observed before, they are usually much farther apart. Astronomers discovered these black holes dancing around one another at the center of a pair of colliding galaxies called MCG-03-34-64, which is 800 million light-years away.
Astronomers serendipitously found the black holes when Hubble’s observations revealed three spikes of bright light within the glowing gas of a galaxy. They published their discovery Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.
“We were not expecting to see something like this,” said lead study author Anna Trindade Falcão, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a statement. “This view is not a common occurrence in the nearby universe, and told us there’s something else going on inside the galaxy.”
Zooming in on bright cosmic lights
The team was intrigued when Hubble picked up on three optical diffraction spikes in a concentrated region of the MCG-03-34-64 galaxy. Diffraction spikes appear when light from a small cosmic region bends around the mirror inside telescopes.
Hubble’s observations were made in optical light, which is visible to the human eye, but the astronomers weren’t sure what they were seeing. Falcão’s team took another look at the galactic region with Chandra in X-ray light.
When the scientists observed the galaxy using Chandra, they were able to pinpoint two powerful sources of X-ray light that matched the optical light sources spotted by Hubble, Falcão said. “We put these pieces together and concluded that we were likely looking at two closely spaced supermassive black holes.”
The team also consulted archival observation radio wave data collected by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of radio telescopes near Socorro, New Mexico. The black hole duo was also found to release energetic radio waves.
“When you see bright light in optical, X-rays, and radio wavelengths, a lot of things can be ruled out, leaving the conclusion these can only be explained as close black holes. When you put all the pieces together it gives you the picture of the (active galactic nuclei) duo,” Falcão said.
Meanwhile, the third diffraction spike observed by Hubble has an unknown origin, and the team requires more data to understand what it could be. The source of light might be from gas that was shocked by an energetic release of material from one of the black holes.
“We wouldn’t be able to see all of these intricacies without Hubble’s amazing resolution,” Falcão said.
Astronomers have observed pairs of black holes that are closer together than these two through radio telescopes, but those duos haven’t been observed in other wavelengths of light.
Both supermassive black holes once served as the centers of their respective galaxies, but a galactic merger brought the two objects much closer together. Eventually, their close spiral will result in a merger in about 100 million years, according to NASA, causing an energetic release of gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of space and time.
Such gravitational waves created by the collisions of supermassive black holes could be detected in the future by LISA, the European Space Agency-led Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission that’s expected to launch in the mid-2030s.
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Venezuela Launches Criminal Probe Into Publishers of Election Tally Website
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attend a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela, August 3, 2024. REUTERS/Fausto Torrealba/File Photo
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's top prosecutor Tarek Saab said on Wednesday he would open a criminal investigation into the publishers of a website showing election tallies collected by the country's opposition, which contests the July 28 election.
"It was decided to launch a criminal investigation against those responsible for the publication and maintenance of the website," Saab said in a statement, citing forgery of public documents, computer crimes and conspiracy.
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Paracas is a desert peninsula located in the province of Pisco, on the southern coast of Peru
Here's where Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello made an astonishing discovery in 1928: a huge and elaborate cemetery with graves full of the largest elongated skulls in the world. They were known as "Paracas skulls".
In total, Tello has found more than 300 of these elongated skulls, some dating back nearly 3,000 years.
#Paracas #Peru #JulioTello #ParacasSkulls #Archaeology #ElongatedSkulls #AncientCivilizations #DesertPeninsula #Pisco #History #AncientPeru #ArchaeologicalDiscovery #MysteriousSkulls #AncientSkulls #PeruvianHistory
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NASA’s Voyager 2 snapped this picture of a crescent Neptune on 31 August 1989 during the spacecraft’s flyby of the planet.
Voyager 2 is the only mission to have visited Uranus or Neptune, the two ice giant planets of our solar system.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill
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In the remote desert of Libya’s Tadrart Acacus lies a geological enigma known as the "Valley of the Planets."
Among its most striking features are the peculiar disc-like boulders scattered across the landscape, resembling ancient relics from another world. These smooth, flat rock formations stand out against the more irregular shapes typically seen in desert environments, sparking intrigue among geologists and explorers alike.
While it’s generally believed that these boulders were shaped by wind and sand erosion over millions of years, their uniformity and disc-like appearance remain a mystery. How did natural forces create such perfectly rounded shapes? Some suggest the boulders are remnants of a much older geological structure, slowly worn down by time. Others theorize that unique wind patterns or underground forces may have played a role.
Yet, much remains unknown. The valley's remote location and Libya's political challenges have limited scientific exploration, leaving many questions unanswered. How old are these formations? What specific conditions led to their unusual shapes? Until more research is conducted, the Valley of the Planets will continue to perplex and captivate.
#ValleyOfThePlanets #GeologicalMystery #DesertBoulders #WindErosion #LibyaExploration
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INSIDE THE ORION NEBULA
This is a wonderful shot showing us one of the most beautiful regions of the sky.
IC 434 is an emission nebula visible in the constellation Orion. In the center of the photo we can see the famous Horsehead Nebula, a dark cloud overlapping it in our line of sight.
#OrionNebula #HorseheadNebula #IC434 #FreeAstroScience #CosmicWonder #StarGazing #NightSky #SpacePhoto #Astronomy #NebulaChasers
Photo: George Chatzifrantzis
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