Thaindian News

Washington, April 11 (ANI): A new research indicates that when two galaxies collide, it causes the black holes at their cores to spiral toward each other, merge, then go on a rampage of star-eating.

The merger kicks the resulting monster black hole into surrounding stars. There, the black hole shreds and swallows stars at a rapid clip.

The research by Nick Stone and Avi Loeb of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests that an upcoming sky survey might offer astronomers a way to catch a gorging black hole “in the act”.

Before the merger, as the two black holes whirl around each other, they stir the galactic center like the blade of a blender. Their strong gravity warps space, sending out ripples known as gravitational waves.

When the black holes merge, they emit gravitational waves more strongly in one direction. That inequality kicks the black hole in the opposite direction like a rocket engine.

“That kick is very important. It can shove the black hole toward stars that otherwise would have been at a safe distance,” said Stone.

“Essentially, the black hole can go from starving to enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet,” he added.

When tidal forces rip a star apart, its remains will spiral around the black hole, smashing and rubbing together, heating up enough to shine in the ultraviolet or X-rays.

The black hole will glow as brightly as an exploding star, or supernova, before gradually fading in a distinctive way.

Importantly, a wandering, supermassive black hole is expected to swallow many more stars than a black hole in an undisrupted galactic center. A stationary black hole disrupts one star every 100,000 years.

In the best-case scenario, a wandering black hole could disrupt a star every decade. This would give astronomers a much better opportunity of spotting these events, particularly with new survey facilities like Pan-STARRS and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Finding a merged black hole also would allow theorists to explore a new regime of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

“We could test general relativity in the regime of strong gravity with unprecedented precision,” said Loeb.

The study is published in the March 2011 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. (ANI)