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Astronomers have spotted the heaviest black hole pair ever seen — a duo weighing the equivalent of 28 billion suns. The black holes' combined mass is so great that they refuse to collide and merge.
The black hole binary, embedded inside the "fossil" galaxy B2 0402+379, consists of two enormous supermassive black holes circling each other at just 24 light-years apart, making them the closest black hole pair ever spotted.
Yet despite their extreme proximity, the twin monsters are locked in orbital limbo: no longer drawing any closer, they have been repeating the same interminable dance for more than 3 billion years. Astronomers are still unsure whether the black hole ballet will continue without intermission or end with a spectacular collision
originally posted by: worldstarcountry
Perhaps these two are like cosmic anchors. They are heaven and hell, good and evil, dark and light. They are the entities of balance, and if one of them wins the universe ends. So as long as they stay in battle, the rest of existence continues obliviously on with itself.
If you like that idea, please use it in a book. I would love to read a fictional narrative on that subject. It sounds like it could be fun.
originally posted by: SomeStupidName
I wonder if there is a way to calculate the amount of frame dragging that has occurred, and is that even they right way to ask a question about how much spacetime is twisted up between them... Could that region be traveled at any sub light speed without falling into either singularity? Would time dilation be a significant measurable amount being that close to 2 singularities? Would the frame dragging have any unique temporal qualities?
originally posted by: UnderAether
This stuff is interesting.
I cannot wait to see a new image of our earth of its entirety. Not a composite or blue marble photoshop art.