Astronomers Discover 33 Pairs of Waltzing Black Holes

Astronomers from UC Berkeley have identified 33 pairs of waltzing black holes, closing the gap somewhat between the observed population of super-massive black hole pairs and what had been predicted by theory. "Astronomical observations have shown that 1) nearly every galaxy has a central super-massive black hole (with a mass of a million to a billion times the mass of the Sun), and 2) galaxies commonly collide and merge to form new, more massive galaxies. As a consequence of these two observations, a merger between two galaxies should bring two super-massive black holes to the new, more massive galaxy formed from the merger. The two black holes gradually in-spiral toward the center of this galaxy, engaging in a gravitational tug-of-war with the surrounding stars. The result is a black hole dance, choreographed by Newton himself. Such a dance is expected to occur in our own Milky Way Galaxy in about 3 billion years, when it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy."

Comments

Waltzing?

[CannonballHead]

Apparently, the definition "waltzing"/a waltz has been diminished to the extent that now it just refers to two objects moving together. Hum.

I guess I'm just a cranky music theory lover though.

Re:Waltzing?

[Z00L00K]

Time to play Waltzing Matilda then?

The big question

[Drummergeek0]

Who leads and who follows?

Re:The big question

[gstoddart]

Who leads and who follows?

Well, it's governed by orbital mechanics and gravity ... so the bigger one technically 'leads', but the smaller one also exerts some influence. :-P

Cheers

OH NO!

[madddddddddd]

the Y3B bug already being dismissed as irrelevant

Re:Wake Me Up When

[Red Flayer]

Wake me up when they've found some doing the Foxtrot or the Lindy Hop.

Meh, that's no big deal. Wake me up when a bunch of black holes line up to dance.

THEN you know we've got problems.

Doo doo doo de do de do doo doo/
Doo doo doo de do de do doo doo/
Do the hustle!