It is the first time that humans have observed the spin of a black hole. The breakthrough was made possible as China has opened up its major technological infrastructure to global scientists. And international cooperation is becoming essential for advancing technological innovation.
Now, it turns out that the quasar nearest to Earth, located 600 million light-years away in a galaxy called Markarian 231, is actually built around two twirling black holes. It’s a first-of-its-kind type of find, and scientists think there could be a lot more quasars with binary hearts out there.
LU Youjun and YAN Changshuo at National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators found a supermassive binary black hole hiding at the center of Markarian 231, the nearest galaxy to Earth that hosts a Quasar. Search for binary black holes is of great importance not only for deep understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies but also for further investigating the gravitational wave radiation and testing the gravity theory. Observations show that most galaxies, if not all, host supermassive black holes in their centers. In the standard galaxy formation model, a big galaxy is assembled through merger and collision of two small galaxies.
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