NASA Simulation to Reveal Spiraling, Supermassive Black Holes

A new supercomputer model at NASA  could help astronomers find spiraling, merging systems of two supermassive black holes. These mergers happen often in the universe, but are hard to see. The simulation brings scientists a step closer to understanding the kinds of light signals produced when two supermassive black holes spiral toward a collision. Scientists have previously detected merging stellar-mass black holes using the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), but supermassive mergers are much more difficult to find.

Transcript

00:00:00 [Music] This computer simulation shows two supermassive black holes orbiting each other. It's helping scientists learn what kind of light a real black hole binary system might produce. [Music] An outer ring of gas surrounds the whole system, and a mini disk surrounds each black hole. Streams of gas connect the disks. [Music] Magnetic and gravitational forces heat up the gas, Producing UV and X-ray light.

00:00:47 [Music] The amount of gas flowing in the system and our viewing angle [Music] can alter what we'll see. [Music] Intense gravity bends space-time. The light follows a warped path and is distorted, as with a lens. [Music] This also creates an "eyebrow" next to one black hole

00:01:27 caused by light from glowing gas immediately outside the other. [Music] Scientists haven't yet seen a supermassive black hole merger, but simulations like this are preparing them for what they'll find. [Music] [Music] NASA Astrophysics [Beeping] [Beeping]