Chinese astronomers may have discovered a triple black hole system they have never seen before.
The team identified this triplet trapped in a complex “waltz” after finding a hidden super-large black hole lurking in the background of a unique gravitational wave event event first detected six years ago.
In 2019, the US-based laser interferometer, Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), detected a series of faint ripples in a space-time fabric known as gravitational waves. They appeared to have been given by the distant merger of two black holes, located between 544 and 912 light years from Earth. The cosmic collision, called GW190814, was particularly notable due to the size of the singularity of the merge, weighing 23 and 2.6 solar masses, respectively.
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Typically, the merged black holes fuse similar masses to each other to create the appropriate type of gravity friction for them to come together. At the time, GW190814 was “the most unequal mass ratio measured by gravitational waves,” according to a 2020 survey of the event. Scientists were particularly surprised by the size of the smaller singularity.
In a new study published July 21 in the Astrophysics Letter, astronomers proposed that this uneven merger is caused by a hidden third object that provided the gravity kick necessary for two incongruent black holes to collide and transform into a single entity.
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The team used simulations to predict how this interaction would affect the gravitational waves produced by the merger, and identified unique “fingerprint” signals associated with hidden objects. They then reanalyzed the LIGO data from their initial findings and discovered that this fingerprint signal actually existed.
“This is the first international discovery of clear evidence of the third compact object in the binary black hole merger event,” Wen-Biao Han, an astronomer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a statement. “It has been revealed that the binary black holes in GW190814 may not have formed on their own, but were part of a more complex gravity system.”
Based on the simulation, the team believes that the most likely identity of hidden compact objects is ultra-large black holes. They still don’t know how big this giant will be, but the lower limit of the ultra-high Massive black hole is about 100,000 solar masses, suggesting at least it’s large, much larger than the other two objects first identified in the system.
The small pair of merged black holes were part of a binary system that danced around the supermassive black holes as they circumnavigated each other in a collective journey around the sun. This is the first time this configuration has been seen in a black hole system.
The newly formed black hole from the merger could continue dancing around its super-large partners for billions of years before it was eventually swallowed up by the large objects, the team added.
The new findings not only provide “critical insights into the formation pathways of binary black holes,” but also provide a new way to identify other hidden giants lurking behind the merger of other equally uneven black holes, Han said.
Since Ligo detected the first ever gravitational wave in 2015, the observatory has discovered over 100 additional gravitational wave events. Most of it was caused by the merger of black holes. Each new detection allows scientists to use more data to uncover new secrets about the universe’s most enormous objects.
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