April 01, 2024
Astronomers have found a pair of supermassive black holes with a mass that is equal to the mass of 28 billion suns. This supermassive black hole binary is located in an elliptical galaxy called B2 0402+379 and the distance between the two black holes is just 24 light years. According to a theory by astronomers, two supermassive black holes ought to collide eventually, once their galaxies merge, though this phenomenon has never been observed yet. The possibility of such an occurrence has been a subject of debate for several years. Scientists studied the supermassive black hole binary and found that a major factor preventing the black holes from merging is their mass.
Did You Know?
Gaia BH1, located at a distance of around 1,500 light years from Earth, is the closest known black hole.
Image for representational purposes
