Scientists capture two black holes orbiting each other for the first time ever

For years, black holes were more like science fiction than science. Now we have a photo – an actual image – of not just one, but two black holes dancing around each other in space.

Astronomers have confirmed what they’ve long suspected: black hole pairs are real. The new image, taken with a powerful radio telescope, shows two black holes circling each other in a distant quasar called OJ 28

Inside a remarkable quasar

Quasars are among the universe’s most luminous objects. They occupy the centers of distant galaxies, illuminated by supermassive black holes that are accreting surrounding gas and dust.

As the material spirals inward, it becomes superheated and emits vast quantities of energy – so much that we can detect it from billions of light-years away.

OJ 287 is one such quasar. It’s notable not only because it’s bright – people with amateur telescopes can detect it – but also because it behaves erratically. It changes brightness on a regular cycle.

That periodic wink led scientists to suspect that it contained two black holes orbiting each other at its center. They had the hypothesis. Now they have the picture.

Two black holes, one image

An international team of astronomers captured a radio image showing two black holes, side by side, right where theory predicted they’d be. That settled a question that’s been open for 40 years: Do black hole pairs exist?

“For the first time, we managed to get an image of two black holes circling each other. In the image, the black holes are identified by the intense particle jets they emit,” said Mauri Valtonen from the University of Turku.

“The black holes themselves are perfectly black, but they can be detected by these particle jets or by the glowing gas surrounding the hole.”

Capturing this photo wasn’t easy. Regular telescopes can’t distinguish the two black holes – they appear as a single point of light. But radio telescopes, which can achieve up to 100,000 times greater resolution, finally provided a clear shot.

Black holes hiding in plain sight

OJ 287 has been in our skies for more than a century. Old photographs from the 1800s show it, though no one knew what it was back then.

The black hole theory didn’t exist yet. The quasar only appeared in those early photos because astronomers were photographing nearby stars.

In 1982, a master’s student named Aimo Sillanpää noticed that OJ 287’s brightness changed every 12 years. That cycle pointed to something orbiting – perhaps two black holes. He kept observing it, and eventually, hundreds of astronomers joined in to figure out exactly what was happening.

The orbital mystery was finally solved four years ago by Lankeswar Dey, a doctoral researcher from Mumbai. He worked part-time at the University of Turku and helped calculate the complex movements of the two black holes. But seeing them separately was still the missing piece.

NASA’s TESS satellite detected light from both black holes but not clearly enough to distinguish them. Only radio telescopes had the resolution needed to capture the image.

A twisting cosmic jet

Besides confirming the orbiting pair, scientists also spotted something strange. One of the black holes – specifically, the smaller one – has a jet of particles shooting out of it. But this jet isn’t straight. It bends and twists like a garden hose on full blast.

This “wagging tail,” as the researchers call it, is caused by the smaller black hole zipping around the larger one. As it moves, the jet shifts directions.

Over the next few years, scientists expect to see it twist in different ways as the black hole speeds up or slows down during its orbit.

The telescope behind the image

“The image of the two black holes was captured with a radio telescope system that included the RadioAstron satellite,” Valtonen said. “It was in operation a decade ago, when OJ287 was imaged.”

“The satellite’s radio antenna went halfway to the Moon, which greatly improved the resolution of the image. In recent years, we have only been able to use Earth-based telescopes, where the image resolution is not as good.”

This photo is more than just a cool image. It’s proof that black holes don’t always go it alone. Some of them come in pairs, moving together for millions of years. And now, we’ve finally seen it with our own eyes.

The full study was published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal.

Image Credit: University of Turku

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