Boom. The Crash of the Colossus
A brilliant and awe-inspiring cosmic firework, or a mere dummy shell?
Black holes. One of the most bizarre titans in the vast cosmos. These voracious eaters break the rules of physics, greedily devouring anything and everything within their vicinity. They may even hold the key to unveiling the mysteries of the universe.
So what would happen if two of these unfathomable titans collided?
In recent observations, scientists believe two of these goliaths found in a galaxy 1.2 billion light-years away are merging in a spectacular, magnificent explosion.
The merging of two supermassive black holes would be a watershed in the field of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Scientists predict the merging would produce an explosion of light across the electromagnetic spectrum, a burst of gravity waves, and an outpour of neutrino particles.
Black Holes - A Cosmic Mystery
So, what are black holes?
When a star more than three times the mass of our sun dies, they collapse under their own gravity. Even the Pauli Exclusion Principle, a principle of physics that states two electrons cannot occupy the same quantum state, cannot stop its collapse.
We still do not know what happens within a black hole. Black holes are the extreme objects in the universe and a gorge that stands between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Beyond the Schwarzschild Radius, no information can escape a black hole, and therefore we may never directly observe the inside structure of a black hole.
Sagittarius A* - The first ever picture of a black hole ever taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). This black hole is located in the galaxy M87, 55 million light-years from earth.
The Clash of Two Titans
Black holes are often located at the center of galaxies, where they suck surrounding materials in with their strong gravitational field, heating the material and causing the galaxy to shine brightly. These galaxies are called active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
The AGN was first observed when the Zwicky Transient Facility, a team led by Ning Jiang from the University of Science and Technology of China, used data from a telescope in California. They found out that the AGN had a periodic dimming and brightening, evidence of two black holes orbiting each other. Moreover, they found out that the cycle was getting shorter, the first report of decaying periods of two orbiting AGNs over time. If the decrease of the periods continues, they are expected to merge B 100 to 300 days.
If the two giants were to merge, despite being more than a billion light-years away, we should still observe a burst of electromagnetic waves and a sudden flood of neutrinos. Because there is still a lot of unknown about black holes, the only certainty of the merging is the effect of gravitational waves. The collision will leave an imprint on the fabric of spacetime, propagating out in all directions.
A simulation of two merging black holes, an event that scientists have been eagerly awaiting.
The Other Side of the Coin
Many scientists, however, are prepared for disappointment. Despite the seemingly surplus amount of evidence predicting the eventual collision, numerous uncertainties are present. For one thing, the ZTF has not been able to observe any previous periodic oscillation of the AGN prior to the years of discovery. It used to merely emit a dim, steady light among the darkness of the cosmos.
The main concerns come from what we still don’t know from these AGNs. Despite being able to prove the existence of such black holes and even photographing the Sagittarius A* black hole in 2019, a myriad of mysteries still are present. If the collision did occur, however, it would truly be a revolutionary breakthrough in the realm of astronomy and astrophysics.
