A black hole, a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape from it. It is invisible. However, space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. A few days ago, astronomers captured the exact moment, a black hole devoured a star. Now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared pictures of two supermassive black holes in Galaxy NGC 6240 in the process of merging. The photos are phenomenal. People on social media are in awe of the stunning capture of two black holes, merging into one. But what happens, when black holes combine? In this article, we will know a little more about black holes.

Understanding black holes and many things around it, have increased among researchers with growing interests. Recently, a new Milky Way map revealed that the Earth is heading towards black hole faster than previously thought. The planet is 2,000 light-years closer to a massive black hole. There have been darkest discoveries by scientists revealing what leads to the formation of black holes and how this invisible is at the centre of our galaxy. Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez received Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 for their discoveries on the black hole.

In the recently shared images by NASA, the two supermassive black holes are in the process of merging. The image consists of new X-ray data from Chandra (shown in red, orange, and yellow) that has been combined with an optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope, originally released in 2008, explains NASA. Scientists believe that the two black holes are a mere 3,000 light-years apart and are seen as the bright point-like sources in the middle of the image. They further speculate that the process began about 30 million years ago and it is believed that the two black holes will eventually drift together and merge into a larger black hole some tens or hundreds of millions of years from now.

“Galaxy NGC 6240 contains two supermassive #BlackHoles in the process of merging. Seen as the bright 'dots' near the center of this image, the black holes are just 3,000 light years apart. Eventually they will drift together, forming a larger black hole millions of years from now,” reads the Instagram caption.

Here Are the Pics:

What Happens When Two Black Holes Combine Into One?

According to NASA, when two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out gravitational waves—ripples in space and time that can be detected with extremely sensitive instruments on Earth. Black holes and black hole mergers are entirely dark, and these events are invisible to telescopes. But theorists have come up with ideas and technologies through which they can study how a black hole merger could produce a light signal by causing nearby material to radiate.

Studying merging black holes has become a very active field of research in astrophysics. There has been intense interest in observations and understanding what happens when these exotic objects interact with one another.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 15, 2020 04:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).