Scientists pick up shock waves from colliding galaxies

Published
4 hours ago



EPTA/STELIIOS THOUKIDIDES

Artist impression: The supermassive black holes at the heart of each galaxy spiral in on each other, sending gravitational shock waves across the Universe

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Scientists have picked up shock waves from the orbit of supermassive black holes at the heart of distant galaxies as they begin to merge. This may be the first direct evidence of giant black holes distorting space and time as they spiral in on each other.

The theory is that this is how galaxies grow. Now astronomers may soon be able to watch it happen. These distortions are happening all the time, all across the Universe.

One of the groups that made the discovery is the European Pulsar Timing Array Consortium (EPTA), led by Prof Michael Kramer of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. He told BBC News that the discovery had the potential to change astronomers' ideas about the cosmos forever.

"It could tell us if Einstein's theory of gravity is wrong; it may tell us about what dark matter and dark energy, the mysterious stuff that makes up the bulk of the Universe, really is; and it could give us a new window into new theories of physics."



EHT

A real picture of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66039810