Binary black hole system identified
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - 14:35
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson have found what looks like two massive black holes orbiting each other in the centre of one galaxy. It has been postulated that twin black holes might exist, but it took an innovative, systematic search to find such a rare pair. The newly identified black holes appear to be separated by only 1/10 of a parsec - a tenth of the distance from Earth to the nearest star. This discovery of the most plausible binary black hole candidate ever found may lead to a greater understanding of how massive black holes form and evolve at the centre of galaxies. Their results are published in the current issue of Nature...