It happened 7,000 million years ago, but the news of that “just” reached us: DOs black holes, one 66 times more massive than our Sun and another 85 times bigger than our star, began to approach, one rapidly rotating around the another several times per second, until they collide violently making the entire Universe resonate. It was the most massive collision we had ever seen, yes; but not only that.
Because this enormous chaotic merger has also allowed us to observe the birth of one of the most elusive objects in the Universe: a black hole of intermediate mass. Something that we suspected existed, but that scientists had been able to find. We are, possibly, before one of the most important discoveries in this field since we detected gravitational waves for the first time.
A New Kind of Black hole
Until now, astrophysicists had only been able to study two types of black holes: stellar ones, which were between five and 100 times more massive than our sun, and supermassive ones, which lived in the center of galaxies and numbered billions times larger. Between 100 and 1000 times the mass of the Sun there was nothing.
As I was saying, astronomers were convinced there had to be something in between, but so far they had been very elusive. On May 21, 2019, LIGO and Virgo received a gravitational wave that lasted just over a tenth of a second. By pulling the thread they have been able to identify one of them ( + ). It is a truly exciting discovery because it fills in one of the gaps that astrophysics was unable to close.
Andromedia and Milky way collision
Not only the black hole Galaxy’s like Andromeda and the Milky Way come into contact. That Andromeda and the Milky Way have a common future is not new. With our neighboring galaxy approaching ours at a speed of approximately 300 kilometres per second, it is predicted that both will end up colliding and generating a larger galaxy, in an event that they have even dubbed Lactomeda. You should not worry, of course, about the possible effects that this may have on your life (not even on that of your great-great-grandchildren), since it is estimated that this event will occur in about 5,860 million years. I don’t think Jordi Hurtado looks so long-term.
This does not mean, however, that there is no news related to the closer relations between Andromeda and the Milky Way, quite the contrary, and according to The Next Web , recent observations made by Hubble have shown that the two galaxies have already established contact . To be more exact, it is the gaseous halo that surrounds Andromeda that is already in contact with the Milky Way, and thanks to the veteran telescope, NASA scientists have been able to map that huge accumulation of gas that surrounds the galaxy that may lead to black hole.
The mapping of the Andromeda halo, which has been carried out in the context of the AMIGA project (Absorption Map of Ionized Gas in Andromeda), has revealed that this gaseous covering, whose outer part is already in contact with our galaxy, is composed of two-layer. An outer one, which we could qualify as calmer and lighter, as opposed to the inner layer, more complex and dynamic than initially estimated, prior to the information provided by Hubble. A complexity that, most likely, is due to the incidence of supernovae found in the Andromeda disk.
With the mapping completed, scientists have been able to determine that the Andromeda halo extends 1.3 million light-years , a figure that rises up to two million light-years in relation to certain directions. And it has been by checking this, its extension, as well as the properties of the outer layer, when it has been determined that it is already in contact with the outermost part of the Milky Way.”
Understanding the huge gas halos that surround galaxies is extremely important, ” says study co-author Samantha Berek, ” These gas deposits contain the fuel necessary for the formation of future stars within galaxies. They are full of clues about the past and future evolution of galaxies, and we will finally be able to study one in great detail in our closest galactic neighbor. »
That Andromeda and the Milky Way have a common future is not new. With our neighboring galaxy approaching ours at a speed of approximately 300 kilometers per second, it is predicted that both will end up colliding and generating a larger galaxy, in an event that they have even dubbed Lactomeda. You should not worry, of course, about the possible effects that this may have on your life (not even on that of your great-great-grandchildren), since it is estimated that this event will occur in about 5,860 million years. I don’t think Jordi Hurtado looks so long-term.
This does not mean, however, that there is no news related to the closer relations between Andromeda and the Milky Way, quite the contrary, and according to The Next Web , recent observations made by Hubble have shown that the two galaxies have already established contact . To be more exact, it is the gaseous halo that surrounds Andromeda that is already in contact with the Milky Way, and thanks to the veteran telescope, NASA scientists have been able to map that huge accumulation of gas that surrounds the galaxy.
The mapping of the Andromeda halo, which has been carried out in the context of the AMIGA project (Absorption Map of Ionized Gas in Andromeda), has revealed that this gaseous covering, whose outer part is already in contact with our galaxy, is composed of two-layer. An outer one, which we could qualify as calmer and lighter, as opposed to the inner layer, more complex and dynamic than initially estimated, prior to the information provided by Hubble. A complexity that, most likely, is due to the incidence of supernovae found in the Andromeda disk.
With the mapping completed, scientists have been able to determine that the Andromeda halo extends 1.3 million light-years , a figure that rises up to two million light-years in relation to certain directions. And it has been by checking this, its extension, as well as the properties of the outer layer, when it has been determined that it is already in contact with the outermost part of the Milky Way.
“Understanding the huge gas halos that surround galaxies is extremely important, ” says study co-author Samantha Berek, ” These gas deposits contain the fuel necessary for the formation of future stars within galaxies. They are full of clues about the past and future evolution of galaxies, and we will finally be able to study one in great detail in our closest galactic neighbor. »
The merger of both galaxies has therefore begun. We already indicated it at the beginning, it is not a process whose end we will be able to live (5,860 million years, remember), but it is fascinating, especially for the scientific community, to be able to observe the first steps of a collision of two galaxies. It is not something that happens for the first time, but until now all cases were so remote that it was hardly possible to investigate them. Since now, with the Andromeda halo touching the Milky Way, that has completely changed.