Timing of Black Hole Dance Revealed by NASA Spitzer Space Telescope
Two massive black holes are locked in a dance at the center of the OJ 287 galaxy. The larger black hole is surrounded by disk of gas; it is also orbited by a smaller black hole that collides with the disk, producing a flare brighter than 1 trillion stars. But because the system s complex physics affects the smaller black hole s orbit, the flares occur irregularly. Scientists used NASA s Spitzer Space Telescope to detect one of these bright flashes on July 31, 2019, confirming that they can now anticipate th
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