Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.
A group of researchers from Germany and the U.S. have found a way to observe a black hole merger and create a wave. The group describes their study of the black hole merger in a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Black holes emit waves. The energy from the waves is due to their momentum. This can cause their orbits to tighten until they run into each other. They go into a black hole with a new path. When two bodies collide and form a black hole, the combined waves from the black hole can be seen in one direction. The black hole recoils in the other direction, moving faster than either of its two original black holes.
The researchers believe that the recoil experienced by the black hole was strong enough to push it past its escape velocity. Some black holes travel faster than they should based on theory, and it's possible that they're due to colliding with each other.
The researchers were the first to observe a change in the rotation of the rotating body in the event of a merger. They used the data to calculate the kick at 1500 km/s. The kick experienced by GW200129 was strong enough to push it all the way out of the Milky Way.
More information: Vijay Varma et al, Evidence of Large Recoil Velocity from a Black Hole Merger Signal, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.191102 Journal information: Physical Review LettersThe Science X Network will be launched in 2022.
Citation: Identification of kick velocity large enough for individual gravitational wave event following binary black hole merger (2022, May 17) retrieved 17 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-identification-velocity-large-individual-gravitational.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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