PHYSORG
Black Holes Go ‘Mano a Mano.’ PHOTO/NASA, Chandra, 10/06/09
New research provides revelations about the most energetic event in the universe—the merging of two spinning, orbiting black holes into a much larger black hole.
An international team of astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, have found solutions to decades-old equations describing what happens as two spinning black holes in a binary system orbit each other and spiral in toward a collision.
The results, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, should significantly impact not only the study of black holes, but also the search for elusive gravitational waves – a type of radiation predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity – in the cosmos.
Unlike planets, whose average distance from the sun does not change over time, general relativity predicts that two black holes orbiting around each other will move closer together as the system emits gravitational waves.
“An accelerating charge, like an electron, produces electromagnetic radiation, including visible light waves,” said Dr Michael Kesden of the University of Texas at Dallas, the paper’s lead author. “Similarly, any time you have an accelerating mass, you can produce gravitational waves.”
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