Hunting for Pairs of Monster Black Holes

Hunting for pairs of monster black holes

When galaxies collide, it's not a gentle affair, but it does take millions of years. Over this time, the two massive star systems slowly merge together, their gravitational pull drawing them closer. At the heart of each galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, an object containing millions or even billions of times the mass of our sun. After the galaxies merge, these two black holes should eventually find each other, settling into orbit around the…

Hunting for Pairs of Monster Black Holes

When two galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes at their centres should eventually find each other and begin a gravitational dance that lasts millions of years. Despite decades of predictions, astronomers are still hunting for definitive proof these binary systems exist. A new review examines the clues scattered across the universe, from wobbling jets spanning hundreds of thousands of light years to specific spectral signatures, and explor…