Scientists are astounded with the disappearance of a massive black hole from 'Galaxy A2261-BCG’, shortly known as the ‘Abell 2261’ which is one of the 25 cluster galaxies being studied and is a distant galaxy from Earth, lying 2.7 billion light-years away approximately. This mysterious event left the astrophysicists anxious about how and why did it happen, and wondering about where the gigantic black hole could now be floating.
Studies estimate that the black hole weighs 100 billion times more than the mass of the sun. The Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray are being used to detect the presence of the black hole in the nearby galaxies or within the Abell 2261. Experts suggest that this could be the first-ever ‘recoiling’ black hole. When black holes merge, gravitational waves are released which can deform any object in their path. According to the theory of gravitational waves, when these waves generated are stronger and more intense in one direction than the other, it can push the merged black hole from the centre of gravity to the opposite direction. Such a type of black hole is termed a “recoiling” black hole. This theory of gravitational waves is yet to be verified.
Researchers from NASA’s Chandra Observatory, on basis of this theory, believe that the disappearance of the black hole would have been possible due to the merging of two galaxies to form Abell 2261, which would have pushed the black hole out of the centre of the galaxy as a result of the invisible gravitational waves. However, no study or Space Administration has verified the real cause for the disappearance of the supermassive black hole yet. Only the merging of smaller black holes and their effects have been verified as research states.
It is reported that NASA’s soon to be launched- “James Webb Telescope” in 2021, could help detect the presence of such waves and thus verify the theory of gravitational waves. What if no such theory is verified and the reason behind the missing black hole remains untold? Either way, a new suspense awaits astrophysics.
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