Question: In which of the following constellation a team of astrophysicists in India have recently spotted a rare merging of three Supermassive Black Holes?
a) Toucan
b) Hydra
c) Ursa Major
d) The big bear
Answer: (a)
Related Facts:-
- A team of astrophysicists in India have recently spotted a rare merging of three Supermassive Black Holes.
- These black holes have been observed in the centers of three galaxies located in the Toucan constellation.
- The discovery came when the astrophysicists from Indian Institute of Astrophysics were observing the merging of two galaxies.
- These merging galaxies were named as NGC7733 and NGC 7734 and located in our celestial neighborhood.
- Astrophysicists detected unusual emissions from the centre of the NGC 7734 when they found the curious movement of a large bright clump within it.
- They found that this new clump of light is nothing but a new galaxy having a different velocity than that of NGC7733.
- After confirming with some other observations that this was a separate galaxy, the scientists named it NGC7733N.
- There are Supermassive black holes, which are several million solar masses in size, at the centres of these galaxies.
- These black holes are known as Active Galactic Nuclei, since the black holes accrete matter; they often have a glow around them.
- It should be known that the Glow around a black hole can be observed using light spectroscopy.
- The report about these black holes was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
- According to the author of the paper the discovery happened by chance during the observation of barred spiral galaxies NGC7733 and NGC7734.
- Astronomers said that they were studying the active galactic nuclei in these two massive galaxies which surprisingly led them to the detection of the third.
- Final Parsec Problem
- The Astronomers explained that if two galaxies collide, their black hole will also come closer by transferring the kinetic energy to the surrounding gas.
- The distance between the black holes decreases with time until the separation is around a parsec (3.26 light-years).
- The two black holes are then unable to lose any further kinetic energy to get even closer and merge. This is known as the final parsec problem.
- Now as the astronomers detected the third black hole near these two, there is no problem now.
- The two can come closer when another black hole or a star passes by and takes away some of their combined angular momentum
- Thus, the dual merging black holes will merge with each other in the presence of a third.
By Rajesh Tripathi