Successful observation of the two black holes just before colliding and combining, "Galaxy formation history is one page"

The National Astronomical Observatory research group seems to succeed in observing the two black holes just before the collision, and its pictures are released.

It is the world's first observation that suggests that there is a black hole just before such a collision, and this observation result is that the collision between the galaxy and the galaxy is repeated many times, It supports the hypothesis of the galaxy formation history that elliptical galaxies are born and seems to have succeeded in observing one of the most magnificent natural phenomena for the first time.

Details are as below.
National Astronomical Observatory PR: discover the twin black hole just before collision

This time, we succeeded in observing the black hole just before the collision is a research group led by Professor Seigo Iguchi of ALMA promotion office of National Astronomical Observatory.

This group discovered in the world that two black holes exist in the center of this galaxy by observation of the revolution movement of the central nucleus of the giant elliptical galaxy / radio wave galaxy 3C66B in 2003 in the world. After that, as a result of further detailed observation, it turned out that the two black holes collided in about 500 years. Successful observation like this is also the world's first.

This is a giant elliptical galaxy · radio wave galaxy 3C66B. The picture was taken by the National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO / AUI).


Two black holes that found in the center collide in another 500 years. It is an image by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).


The discovery of two black holes just before colliding and coalescing supports the hypothesis of the galactic history history that galaxies collide several times and finally giant elliptical galaxies are believed to be born.

In the future, we will conduct more accurate observations and investigate the behavior of the black hole just before coalescing, so that the mechanism of the birth of the super huge black hole and the gravitational wave which is said to be emitted in the process of the birth of the super huge black hole It is to clarify the relationship of.

This content will be posted on Astro Physical Journal · Letter, astrophysics journal published on December 1st.

Image provided in:National Astronomical Observatory

Additional notes:
About the black hole which is likely to collide, the notation was corrected by being "image" instead of "photo".