"On August 12th, scientists finally got an answer to a question they had been wondering for years: How do black holes grow?" -- Winnie Yuasa, 7th grade
On August 12th, scientists finally got an answer to a question they had been wondering for years: How do black holes grow? The answer to this question came with the discovery of a galaxy with three black holes.
Picture of the galaxy scientists found with three black holes
The galaxy in question is called J0148-4214, and is located 12.5 billion light years away from earth. Two out of the three black holes were found to be 620 light years apart, and on the brink of merging. Prior to finding the black holes, scientists had thought that black holes could get bigger by absorbing mass, they could have just been bigger when they formed, and they may have merged, according to an article by the New York Times. However, since they found the galaxy, scientists think black holes can grow either by absorbing mass or by merging with other black holes, according to an article by The Guardian. Scientists also think that all the black holes that have merged were all previously merged. They also mention how that explains why black holes can be so big.
Scientists know quite a bit about black holes but they still wanted to know more. This question was considered “one of the outstanding questions in astrophysics,” said Dr. Finkelstein, who is a researcher who tries to understand how the galaxies first formed, to. the New York Times.
Scientists already knew how black holes formed, but they still wondered how they gotthat big. To answer this question, scientists decided to try and find a galaxy with two black holes in it. Sara Hashemi reported in the Smithsonian that “The researchers behind the new work began their search two years ago. They were hoping to find galaxies from the early universe that contained two black holes, reports Amanda Schupak for the New York Times. That’s because the team wanted to better understand how the objects become bigger.”
A question now is what would happen if black holes merged, and how could they affect us? Scientists do know that when black holes merge, they will release gravitational waves. They know this because they can sense them by using a gravitational wave detector which was first made in the 1990s and was mentioned in an article by The Guardian. It is a device that is used to detect gravitational waves, and has already found 300 black holes. Gravitational waves are ripples in space, according to an article from the Texas Standard.
How can these waves affect us when they pass Earth or other objects? They will stretch and squeeze us. They don’t affect us too much though because they are small. In an article by NASA, it says “Across the vastness of space, gravity acts very weakly. Therefore, gravitational waves tend to be small and weak as well.”
Besides the gravitational waves, black holes just merge and get bigger.
The galaxy in question is called J0148-4214, and is located 12.5 billion light years away from earth. Two out of the three black holes were found to be 620 light years apart, and on the brink of merging. Prior to finding the black holes, scientists had thought that black holes could get bigger by absorbing mass, they could have just been bigger when they formed, and they may have merged, according to an article by the New York Times. However, since they found the galaxy, scientists think black holes can grow either by absorbing mass or by merging with other black holes, according to an article by The Guardian. Scientists also think that all the black holes that have merged were all previously merged. They also mention how that explains why black holes can be so big.
Scientists know quite a bit about black holes but they still wanted to know more. This question was considered “one of the outstanding questions in astrophysics,” said Dr. Finkelstein, who is a researcher who tries to understand how the galaxies first formed, to. the New York Times.
Scientists already knew how black holes formed, but they still wondered how they gotthat big. To answer this question, scientists decided to try and find a galaxy with two black holes in it. Sara Hashemi reported in the Smithsonian that “The researchers behind the new work began their search two years ago. They were hoping to find galaxies from the early universe that contained two black holes, reports Amanda Schupak for the New York Times. That’s because the team wanted to better understand how the objects become bigger.”
A question now is what would happen if black holes merged, and how could they affect us? Scientists do know that when black holes merge, they will release gravitational waves. They know this because they can sense them by using a gravitational wave detector which was first made in the 1990s and was mentioned in an article by The Guardian. It is a device that is used to detect gravitational waves, and has already found 300 black holes. Gravitational waves are ripples in space, according to an article from the Texas Standard.
How can these waves affect us when they pass Earth or other objects? They will stretch and squeeze us. They don’t affect us too much though because they are small. In an article by NASA, it says “Across the vastness of space, gravity acts very weakly. Therefore, gravitational waves tend to be small and weak as well.”
Besides the gravitational waves, black holes just merge and get bigger.