Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have revealed the closest pair of supermassive black holes to Earth ever observed. The two objects also have a much smaller separation than any other previously spotted pair of supermassive black holes and will eventually merge into one giant black hole.
Located in the galaxy NGC 7727 in the constellation Aquarius, the supermassive black hole pair is about 89 million light-years away from Earth. Although this may seem distant, it beats the previous record of 470 million light-years by quite some margin, making the newfound supermassive black hole pair the closest to us yet.
Supermassive black holes lurk at the centre of massive galaxies and when two such galaxies merge, the black holes end up on a collision course. The pair in NGC 7727 beat the record for the smallest separation between two supermassive black holes, as they are observed to be just 1600 light-years apart in the sky. “It is the first time we find two supermassive black holes that are this close to each other, less than half the separation of the previous record holder,” says Karina Voggel ...
“The small separation and velocity of the two black holes indicate that they will merge into one monster black hole, probably within the next 250 million years,” adds co-author Holger Baumgardt ...
First Direct Dynamical Detection of a Dual Super-Massive
Black Hole System at sub-kpc Separation ~ K. T. Voggel et al
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
<<NGC 7727 is a peculiar galaxy in the constellation Aquarius. This object is located at a distance of 76 million light years of the Milky Way and has a peculiar aspect, with several plumes and streams of irregular shape that explains its inclusion on Halton C. Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies with the number 222, being classified as a "Galaxy with amorphous spiral arms".
In all likelihood, this system is the product of the merger of two previous spiral galaxies that took place 1 billion years ago, with the aforementioned stellar plumes and streams being the remnants of the disks of the two galaxies that collided to form this object. Two starlike objects can be seen in NGC 7727's center, at least one of them likely being the former core of one of those two spiral galaxies. In addition to this, 23 objects--candidates to be young globular clusters formed in the collision--can be found in this system.
NGC 7727 is very similar to NGC 7252, another galaxy product of the collision and merging of two former spiral galaxies, in the same constellation. However it has far less gas (neutral hydrogen and molecular hydrogen) than the latter. NGC 7727's most likely fate is to become an elliptical galaxy in the future, with very little interstellar dust and star formation.>>
Closest monster supermassive black hole pair to Earth found in a nearby galaxy
By Phil Plait, November 30, 2021
<<Most spiral galaxies have a central bulge of stars thousands of light years across which gets brighter toward the center. However, high-res images of the center of NGC 7727 show it has two bright spots in its heart, two nuclei.
A team of astronomers found clear evidence of supermassive black holes in both nuclei. The one in Nucleus 1 has a mass of 154 million (±10%) times the Sun's mass, so it's beefy (the central black hole in our Milky Way is "only" about 4 million solar masses). Nucleus 2 has a black hole with a mass of 6.3 million solar masses (with a larger uncertainty of roughly 50%).
Not only that, but they were able to get measurements of the total masses (including stars) of both nuclei. Nucleus 1 has a mass of about 50 billion Suns, and Nucleus 2 about 200 million.>>
Supermassive Black Hole orbital period ~ 4.5 million years.
<<NGC 7727 is a peculiar galaxy in the constellation Aquarius. This object is located at a distance of 76 million light years of the Milky Way and has a peculiar aspect, with several plumes and streams of irregular shape that explains its inclusion on Halton C. Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies with the number 222, being classified as a "Galaxy with amorphous spiral arms".
In all likelihood, this system is the product of the merger of two previous spiral galaxies that took place 1 billion years ago, with the aforementioned stellar plumes and streams being the remnants of the disks of the two galaxies that collided to form this object. Two starlike objects can be seen in NGC 7727's center, at least one of them likely being the former core of one of those two spiral galaxies. In addition to this, 23 objects--candidates to be young globular clusters formed in the collision--can be found in this system.
NGC 7727 is very similar to NGC 7252, another galaxy product of the collision and merging of two former spiral galaxies, in the same constellation. However it has far less gas (neutral hydrogen and molecular hydrogen) than the latter. NGC 7727's most likely fate is to become an elliptical galaxy in the future, with very little interstellar dust and star formation.>>
The Kessel Run was a 20-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si'Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel's mines.>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_cats wrote:
<<The Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle. In the 19th century the Kilkenny cats were a common simile for any conflict likely to ruin both combatants.>>
The Kessel Run was a 20-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si'Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel's mines.>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_cats wrote:
<<The Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle. In the 19th century the Kilkenny cats were a common simile for any conflict likely to ruin both combatants.>>
The “Tales of Spaghetti – Linguine” hasn’t been written yet but Han would do it solo.
Freddy's Felicity "Only ascertain as a cat box survivor"
The Kessel Run was a 20-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si'Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel's mines.>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_cats wrote:
<<The Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle. In the 19th century the Kilkenny cats were a common simile for any conflict likely to ruin both combatants.>>
Art, I love your illustration of Holmes and Moriarty fighting for their lives on that high cliff. It's like a combination of the APOD of November 28, A High Cliff on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (sans the waterfall), and a symbolic illustration of the two "warring" black holes of NGC 7727.
Ann wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:52 am
Art, I love your illustration of Holmes and Moriarty fighting for their lives on that high cliff. It's like a combination of the APOD of November 28, A High Cliff on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (sans the waterfall), and a symbolic illustration of the two "warring" black holes of NGC 7727.
I suppose if I had stuck with the Simon & Garfunkel theme I would have posted a picture of Kurt Wallander wrestling with himself (painted by Kurt's Dad, perhaps).
