Astronomers Discover the Closest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes to Earth, on the Brink of Collision.
Two black holes, located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the NGC 7727 galaxy, are moving towards each other and will eventually merge into a gigantic black hole. They are separated by 1,600 light-years.
The pair of black holes is 89 million light-years away from Earth. (Photo: ESO).
The nearest pair of supermassive black holes previously discovered was located 470 million light-years away from our planet.
“One of the black holes is at the center of the galaxy, while the second black hole is slightly off-center. We have never found a pair of black holes at such a close distance before,” said Ms. Voggel.
Voggel and her team determined the mass of the two black holes by observing how their gravitational forces affect the motion of surrounding stars.
Accordingly, the two black holes weigh approximately 154 and 6.3 million times the mass of the Sun, making them significantly larger than Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Voggel stated that this recent discovery is extremely important because, although the pair will not collide and merge for another 250 million years, it presents an opportunity to study this system.
It may also help resolve astronomers’ questions about how supermassive black holes grow to such enormous sizes. “We still do not understand how black holes gain their mass. One possibility is through merging with supermassive black holes from other galaxies,” Voggel noted.
