Two galaxies with two black holes each caught in the act of merging by Chandra
Representative image of black holes
In what is being described as the first such event in the cosmos, astronomers have discovered two pairs of supermassive black holes that are on the verge of merging. The event has been observed in two dwarf galaxies by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Scientists say that it will provide insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early universe.
Chandra has captured extraordinary images of the two dwarf galaxies, Mirabilis and Elstir & Vinteuil. The former is located 760 million light-years away, while the latter is 3.2 billion light-years away from our galaxy.
This cosmic spectacle has never been seen before, as each galaxy has two supermassive black holes at its core.
Chandra observed the X-ray emissions from the accretion disks of the black holes. These X-rays form when matter falls into a black hole, creating a disk of superheated plasma around it. The discovery will help us understand how galaxies evolve during their lifetime and will prove especially helpful in learning about how large galaxies like our Milky Way form.
The discovery has been mentioned in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal and ArXiv.
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Dwarf galaxies are believed to merge with each other to form bigger galaxies. They have fewer than a billion stars and are responsible for the creation of bigger and more mature galaxies, scientists say.
Dwarf galaxies and black holes
Brenna Wells, co-author of the study, explains, "Most dwarf galaxies and black holes in the early universe have likely grown much larger now, thanks to repeated mergers. In a way, dwarf galaxies are our galactic ancestors, evolving over billions of years to produce large galaxies like our own Milky Way."
This event of dual black hole pairs in merging dwarf galaxies is expected to open up a whole new world in the quest to understand galactic formation and evolution.
Jimmy Irwin, another co-author of the study, said, "Follow-up observations of these two systems will allow us to study crucial processes for understanding galaxies and their black holes at a young age."
They hope to learn about the role black holes play in galactic growth, everything about galaxy mergers, and how supermassive black holes form.