Astronomers spotted the evidence for supermassive black holes merging as they successfully found a large number of double supermassive black holes. This event is likely to be the precursors of the merging event of two supermassive black holes.
According to the recent report by the team of scientists from the University of Hertfordshire, this event confirms the modern understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. The theory of cosmological evolution states that galaxies and their respective black holes merge over time to form bigger and bigger galaxies and black holes.
The research team looked for the radio maps of powerful jet sources according to the newly published journal in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. By inspecting the jet sources, they have found the signs which could only be present when two supermassive black holes are closely orbiting each other.
During the time of supermassive binary black holes orbiting each other, powerful jet emits from the nucleus of the galaxy that periodically changes its direction. Astronomers now studied the direction of the jets and compared it with one of the radio lobes that stored all the particles went through the jet channels. And with that, they demonstrate the method which can be useful to find the supermassive binary black holes.
The lead author of the paper, Martin Krause, said “We have studied the jets in different conditions for a long time with computer simulations. In this first systematic comparison to high-resolution radio maps of the most powerful radio sources, we were astonished to find signatures that were compatible with jet precession in three quarters of the sources.”
According to the new study, a jet always heading the same direction can only heat a limited amount of gas in the vicinity. But, the powerful jets from merging binary black holes periodically change the direction. And by doing that, they can heat more gas and effectively suppress the formation of new stars.