Scientists have identified a strange twisting motion in the orbits of the collision of two black holes, a strange phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
The study notes that this is the first time this effect, known as “precession” or rotation, a variable circular motion around an axis called the “initiative” axis, has been seen in black holes, where the torsion is 10 billion times faster than previous observations.
Read also: The discovery of a hot bubble of gas orbiting the black hole of the Milky Way
Scientists said that this Black hole The “wobbler” is the most extreme example ever, and the binary black hole system, called GW200129, was first detected by gravitational waves, two years ago, by advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, based in the United States and Italy, respectively, in early 2020. .
The study says that one of these two holes is 40 times larger than our sun and may be the fastest black hole found in this way (by gravitational waves) ever.
Contrary to all previous observations, the fast-spinning black hole distorted spacetime to such an extent that it caused the entire binary system’s orbit to “wobble”.
During the study, Cardiff University researcher Dr Charlie Hoy, who is now at the University of Portsmouth, said: ‘Until now, most of the black holes, which we’ve found with gravitational waves, have been rotating fairly slowly. The largest black hole in this binary, which was the largest, was At about 40 times the mass of the Sun, it is spinning as fast as physically possible.
Our current models of how binaries form indicate that this pattern is extremely rare, perhaps one in every thousand. Or it could be a sign that our paradigms need to change.”
Scientists said it is the first time that this phenomenon has been seen in black holes like this, after years of theory.
Professor Mark Hannam of Cardiff University’s Gravity Exploration Institute noted: “We’ve always thought that binary black holes could do this. We’ve been hoping to identify an example of this since the first gravitational wave discoveries, and we had to wait five years and more than 80 separate discoveries, but In the end we have one.”
This precedent is part of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, so its existence has been known for some time. But seeing them in black holes means they can be seen in the most extreme conditions possible.
Previously, the best example of this phenomenon were two neutron stars, the initiative of which took 75 years to create. In the new example, this happens every few seconds.