Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 December 3
                      Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes
Video Credit: NASA [2] 's Goddard Space Flight Center [3] ; Music: In the Hall
                of the Mountain King [4]  by Edvard Grieg [5]

Explanation: Do black holes glow when they collide? When merging, co-orbiting
black holes [6]  are sure to emit a burst of unusual gravitational radiation
[7] , but will they emit light [8] , well before that, if they are surrounded
by gas [9] ? To help find out, astrophysicists [10]  created a sophisticated
computer [11]  simulation. The simulation [12]  and featured resulting video
[13]  accurately depicts two spiraling supermassive black hole [14] s,
including the effects of Einstein's general relativity [15]  on the
surrounding gas and light. The video [16] first shows the system from the top,
and later from the side where unusual gravitational lens distortions [17]  are
more prominent. Numerical results [18]  indicate that gravitational and
magnetic forces should energize the gas to emit high-energy light from the
ultraviolet [19] to the X-ray [20] . The emission of such light may enable
humanity to detect and study [21]  supermassive black hole pair [22] s well
before they spiral together.

Open Science: Browse 1,800+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library [23]

                      Tomorrow's picture: launch streak

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [35] (MTU [36] ) & Jerry Bonnell [37]
                                  (UMCP [38] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [39] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [40]
              A service of: ASD [41]  at NASA [42]  / GSFC [43]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [44]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [3] https://www.nasa.gov/goddard
  [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Hall_of_the_Mountain_King
  [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Grieg
  [6] https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes
  [7] ap160211.html
  [8] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/01_intro
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk
  [10] http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aad8b4/meta
  [11] https://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/1954_c641.jpg
  [12]
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/
new-simulation-sheds-light-on-spiraling-supermassive-black-holes
  [13] image/1812/SmbhSimulation_NasaGsfc_annotated.mp4
  [14] http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/s/supermassive+black+hole
  [15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity
  [16] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13043
  [17] https://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html
  [18] http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aad8b4/meta
  [19] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves
  [20] http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/xrays.html
  [21] ap171016.html
  [22] ap160212.html
  [23] http://ascl.net/code/all
  [24] ap181202.html
  [25] archivepix.html
  [26] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [27] lib/aptree.html
  [28] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [29] calendar/allyears.html
  [30] /apod.rss
  [31] lib/edlinks.html
  [32] lib/about_apod.html
  [33] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181203
  [34] ap181204.html
  [35] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [37] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [38] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [39] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [40] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [41] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [42] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [43] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [44] http://www.mtu.edu/

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