Giant Black Hole Pair Photobombs Andromeda Galaxy

• by Budgieye moderator

  Even more intriguing than the large distance of J0045+41 is that it
  likely contains a pair of giant black holes in close orbit around each
  other. The estimated total mass for these two supermassive black holes
  is about two hundred million times the mass of our Sun.

  Previously, a different team of astronomers had seen periodic
  variations in the optical light from J0045+41, and, believing it to be
  a member of M31, classified it as a pair of stars that orbited around
  each other about once every 80 days.

  more at https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/giant-black-hole-pair-photobombs-andromeda-galaxy.html

  
  https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/m31_0.jpg?itok=OkRPz5ug

  X-ray source J0045+41.
  Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/University of Washington/T. Dorn-Wallenstein et al.; Optical: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton et. al. and R. Gendler

  galaxy viewed through Andromeda galaxy in SDSS

  

  http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr14/SkyServerWS/ImgCutout/getjpeg?TaskName=Skyserver.Chart.Image&ra=11.36375&dec=41.54842&scale=25.352128&width=512&height=512&opt=GL&query=&Grid=on&Label=on

  Posted December 1, 2017 9:54 AM