Extreme black hole system OJ 287 just got more interesting

Extreme black hole system OJ 287 just got more interesting

Out there in the Universe, black holes abound. When two black holes merge, a significant portion of their mass can get converted into energy, in the form of gravitational waves, in one very short time interval. Over a much longer period of time, there’s an earlier stage where these black holes orbit with periods of 1-10 years, and pulsar timing can be sensitive to the cumulative effects of those systems throughout the cosmos. Different types of…