Colliding black holes, twist and stretch space and time

This striking image combined was the optical light (from the Hubble Space Telescope) and x-ray data (from the Chandra x-ray Observatory), the two supermassive black holes as they on another stare of the chaos of disturbed stars, dust and hot gas in the center of NGC 6240 (NASA/CXC/MIT/STScI C.CanizaresM.Nowak)

How would you go about the visualization of violent chaos in the wake of a black hole collision? As a physicist, with great difficulty, realization are.

Understand how space and time, such as two supermassive black holes collide has astrophysicist for some time at a loss. But with the help of some clever theoretical tools, a group of physicists, led by Robert Owen of at Cornell University in Ithaca, understand New York, a refined way as responds, have found space and time in some of the most extreme forces in the cosmos.

In the process which have already answered a mysterious problem understanding the nature of space and time, which can researchers: Get their kicks as colliding supermassive black holes.

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Warped spacetime

As a result of Einstein's general theory of relativity view of the universe causes massive objects distort spacetime.

The classic visualization would be this, suspend, balls of different masses on a sheet of rubber-an analog for the "fabric of space and time." The harder the ball, the greater the distortion (or "warping") on the rubber sheet. This can be interpreted as the greater the distortion, the deeper the gravitational well in space and time.

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In the Earth, for example, our planet Earth created a sloping "Pocket" gravity in space and time. But for an extreme case, such as a black hole, the bag pages drops vertically forming a sheer "good" (in our rubber sheet analog, ball, representing the massive black hole through the floor, stretching the rubber sheet til it torn and crash through the roof of the apartment below is reduced).

In the place where the black hole goes well of "Oblique" to "vertical", cant anything that falls into this well get out. This limit is known as the "event horizon," the point of even light can escape.

Now, Affairs further make it difficult to start spinning the black hole (as the majority of the black holes are expected to). What happens then with space and time? Not only it has too extreme, that lost everything to close forgotten lost one, but were "Wrinkles" in space and time the spinning action causes distorted. A phenomenon known as "Drag frame." turns the wrinkles with the black hole,

So we have forgiven extreme and drag border, how these features can be made visible? How do they interact?

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Tendexes and swirl

At points within the warped space and time, we can imagine a grid of arrows. Each arrow behaves like a compass, but instead of on a magnetic object show, they are passed through the force of gravity. By linking these arrows, Owen team could a "card" with two different types of lines create, forgiven representing the space and time.

A set of lines, have referred to was "Tandex Lines" and the other, "Vortex lines."

The two are (yellow) within Gansu (grey) spiral eddies which sticking out of a black hole, swirling space and the Vortex lines (red curve), which are vertebrae (the Caltech/Cornell SXS collaboration)

Tandex represent lines stretched (or compressed) space and time-these lines would describe how the tidal forces stretch exercised through a black hole and rip apart any object that strayed to close. The Vortex lines are the winding effects of space and time. So, how is a black hole, would pull space and time with him (frame dragging), the set of twisting of vortex lines represented.

"Everything falls into a black hole around and around woven calls," says Owen in a CalTech press release.

This elegant solution to visualize warped space and time has already helped the researchers to understand the mechanisms behind black hole collisions.

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When galaxies collide

The majority of galaxies are probably supermassive black holes at their centers of life have. Two galaxies collide, a frequent event in cosmological time scales, could merge the central black hole giants.

As can be presented, this scenario generates a nightmare of space and time. But while black hole mergers, a rather confusing phenomenon is predicted; the black hole merged recently often kicked from the Galaxy and lost in the Intergalactic space.

And this is not mere theory, such black holes fell for some strange reason, have been recognized Galactic from their homes.

As well as kicked "get a supermassive black hole"? These monsters are very difficult to move, after all.

Owen and his colleagues have an answer. From the CalTech press release:

On one side of the black hole, you add the gravitational waves from the vertebrae together with the waves from the spiral Tendexes spiral. On the other hand the Vortex and Tendex lift shafts each other. The result is a burst of waves in one direction, causing the merged bore recoil.

A graphic illustrates the gravitational waves are expected to to a black hole collision (W. Benger/Max Planck Institute) are generated

Gravitational doughnuts

An other fascinating twist predicted in this research also, that if two black holes collide head-on, expansion of space and time rings are made. These rings consist of vertebrae as "space ring-shaped regions of whirling machines" and "Tendexes as a ring-shaped regions stretching." The black holes spiral should inside before the collision, its vertebrae and Tendexes spiral from the merged hole, such as the ripples and vertebrae on the surface of noisy swimming pool.

This extension doughnuts are gravitational waves, a phenomenon of gravitational wave chased generate detectors such as Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO).

Of course, before the Tandex and vortex visualization tool can be accepted, other teams of astrophysicists have, to integrate them in their theoretical models for a wide range of cosmological problems.

Describe how merged supermassive black holes around a Galaxy can be kicked, but is a very good start.

Source: EurekAlert

Publication: "frame-dragging swirls and tides of Tendexes attached to colliding black holes: visualization of the curvature of spacetime," Owen et al., physical review letters 2011. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.151101

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Ocean noise pollution blowing holes in Squid of Heads

Thousands of Humboldt squid died in 2004 before the coast of Oregon and hundreds again in the year 2008. The offender was originally as a shift of the deep sea currents, but a new study pinpoints, the noise of the physical trauma on cephalopods and raises new concerns about the incidents of squid were can inflict.

Dolphins and whales and other marine mammals are not vulnerable to noise pollution from human activities only sea life.

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Previous information, the squid may be vulnerable to noise occurred in 2001 and 2003, when giant squid along the coast of Asturias, Spain washed. The fight for the cause be identified, biologists finally concluded that the deaths were most likely related to the presence of ships with seismic air guns for geophysical prospecting of the seabed.

A new study, frontiers in ecology and the environment, published in the journal found that noise damaged cephalopods even low-intensity and can be expected to wash ashore.

In the study conducted by Michel André from the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, biologists made 87 individual cephalopods four species - Loligo Vulgaris, sepia officinalis, Octopus vulgaris and Illex Coindeti - to short sweeps of relatively low intensity, low tones between 50 and 400 hertz (Hz). Then studied the animals of Statocysts - balance and position in the water liquid filled, balloon-like structures, these invertebrates maintain it. André and his colleagues found that immediately after exposure to low frequency sound, the cephalopods showed hair cell damage within the Statocysts. In the course of time was swollen nerve fibres and, finally, large holes appeared.

"If the relatively low intensity, short exposure in our study used, can cause this severe acoustic trauma, then the effects of the continuous, high-intensity noise pollution in the oceans considerable, might be" Andre said in a press release to announce the results.

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Noise underwater travels far and fast and the sea is full of natural sounds, such as such as snapping shrimp. Therefore many underwater to species adept hearing are extremely sensitive to the Cocaphanie of noise, from boat engines, sonar, the people will by this marine Symphony.

"Can we predictions that, since the Statocyste for balance and spatial orientation makes noise damage to this structure probably cephalopods ability affect would hunt, avoiding predators and even reproduce;" in other words, this would be incompatible with life, "said Andre."

The discovery raises questions, he crossed over just how widespread the effects of noise on the life could be:

"Is the noise situation impact on the entire Web ocean life?" What is beyond, other effects noise on marine damage to auditory reception systems? ?And how far spread and invasive, pollution of the marine environment is sound?

Figure 1: A cuttlefish, sepia officinalis, one of the four species studied for their response to noise pollution. (Image: Corbis)

Figure 2: Researchers found that noise pollution could literally a hole in structures blow need cephalopods to determine their orientation. Photos courtesy Laboratori d ' en Bioacústiques, Universitat Politènica de Catalunya.

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Witness the growing pains teenager of black holes

Astronomers are endless fascinated by the supermassive black holes are located in the Centre of the most large galaxies. But how did she get so big? With some of the largest optical telescopes on Earth, astronomers have caught their growth end the raging youth.

Black holes, which are a few times the mass of our Sun are produced in the explosive death of very large stars. It is not as easy to get the supermassive black holes, the millions or even billions of times more massive than our Sun. Unfortunate gas and stars can make their way in the middle and fall into the black holes, so that their add bulk.

Galaxies by cycles of such activity, but does not explain that, arrived as a black hole in the first place.

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Astronomers Benny Trakhtenbrot, Hagai Netzer, Paulina lira and Ohad Shemmer used the huge mirror the Gemini North telescope and the very large telescope, the light from Active Galaxies 12.4 billion light years distance record. The black holes at their centers are active material gain, when the universe was little more than a billion years old.

These black holes are smaller average and more actively (or lighter) more than a similar population, that at the age of two billion years, and one in the age was examined almost three billion. In this way have the astronomers who pursued also appreciate development of these types of supermassive black holes, back to its foundation at the beginning of the universe. Some may have arisen from the "normal" black holes, which we see today. Others can as a more mysterious and hard tangible medium black hole have arisen.

I am impressed that this study was able to gather a complete example of such young active galaxies and their black holes. Finally, it is not advisable to make general conclusions, if there are only a handful of the brightest.

The ability of astronomers to look back at the time of looking further and further allows direct observation of the evolution of our universe and telescopes go continue for greater and greater thrust. Here, on this small planet, questions about the largest and most spectacular scale of the universe we call. And why not?

Image: Artistic representation of the hard drive to and active supermassive black hole, complete with material escape its pull jets. Credit: ESA/NASA/AVO/Paolo Padovani

This work was published in the Astrophysical Journal, and a preprint is on Scholarpedia.

With thanks to Ned Wright on his Cosmology machines.

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