A binary black hole system in an active galaxy about 4 billion light-years away was seen to brighten dramatically when one of the black holes briefly formed the accretion disk of the other into a double star. quasar.
A quasar is the extremely active core of a distant galaxy. This activity is a product of a product. supermassive black hole It consumes matter voraciously, in fact there is so much matter that it cannot handle it all – instead, much material is indiscriminately ejected in a magnetically directed jet, rather than falling beyond the black hole. event horizon like the rest of the topic. When we see such a jet of charged particles (moving at almost the same speed) speed of light) head on, the quasar looks particularly bright. We call it a blazar.
Galaxy OJ 287 is about 4 billion away light years far away, it is one of the closest examples of a blazar. In fact, it is bright enough to be seen with large amateur telescopes, with observations of OJ 287 dating back to the late 1800s. Observations like these suggest that OJ 287 brightens every 12 years. In 2014, he received his Ph.D. Student Pauli Pihajoki from the University of Turku in Finland suggested that this flare was caused by the presence of a second, less massive black hole orbiting and interacting with the primary black hole. If this were the case, the orbit of the secondary black hole around the primary black hole would be lengthened, meaning that it would only approach the primary black hole every 12 years.
Pihajoki reasoned that, in addition to the overall brightening of the system, this interaction should also result in the smaller black hole stealing some material from the large material accretion disk around the primary black hole and briefly producing its own smaller quasar jet. time. Pihajoki also roughly predicted when this would happen. So, in November 2021, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is temporarily closed outer planet-OJ 287’s review of hunting duties. Joined TESS NASA‘S Fast And Fermi gamma ray There were telescopes and a number of ground-based observatories, but it was TESS in particular that made the critical observations.
Relating to: Flashy ‘dance’ of two monster black holes captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope
On November 12, 2021, TESS detected OJ 287 shining at around magnitude two for approximately 12 hours; because in this short explosion it released as much energy as an average of 100 galaxies would release at the same time. This flare was attributed to a jet from the second black hole; Observations from other telescopes also supported this conclusion; especially Fermi Detecting a significant gamma ray burst.
“Just as TESS has seen planets orbiting others, we can now say that we have ‘seen’ an orbiting black hole for the first time.” starsMauri Valtonen from the University of Turku, who led the observations, said: expression.
Observations also show that the masses black holes will be approved. The primary black hole, also known as the main energy source in OJ 287, has a massive mass of 18.35 billion. solar massesThe secondary is not light, with 150 million solar masses. In comparison, Spring A*The black hole at our center Milky Way galaxyIts mass is only 4.1 million solar masses.
short amount time It explains why neither it nor flares from other binary black hole systems have been discovered until now during the time the flare was active. Knowing when and where to look to see such flares is crucial, and there may be many other binary black holes experiencing similar flares that we don’t know about. But these black hole binaries may soon have nowhere to hide.
“The smaller black hole may soon reveal its presence through other means as it is expected to emit nano-Hertz.” gravity wavesAchamveedu Gopakumar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India, who participated in the observations, said in the statement: “The gravitational waves of OJ 287 will be detectable in the coming years by maturing pulsar timing arrays.”
Pulsar timing arrays They work by constantly orbiting a network of pulsars in deep space. pulsars is turning neutron stars emitting radio jets like cosmic lighthouses. We can measure how fast radio jets are spinning by counting how often we see them spinning in our direction. Some pulsars can spin hundreds of times per second, causing their jets to appear to emit radio waves as they flash repeatedly at us.
It is noteworthy that pulsars keep time very well; Pulse beat periods are accurate without error. However, if gravitational waves pass by, these waves will distort the image. space This will affect our perspective on the pulsar’s timing.
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Binary black holes are also important for the growth of supermassive black holes. The latest results, presented at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Wisconsin this June, showed that mergers between supermassive black holes are an important secondary factor in their massive growth, releasing ripples as they spiral toward each other during the merger process. gravity waves. Although the frequency of these gravitational waves is very low LEAGUEFor the Gravitational Wave Observatory to detect, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a space-based detector called LISA, will be able to detect their mergers as they come together in large cosmic collisions.
The results of OJ 287’s observations were published on 11 June. Astrophysical Journal.