Scientists have identified 4 supermassive black holes on a collision course

Black holes are regions in space that concentrate an extremely strong gravitational force. Recently, scientists at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory noticed that four of them were about to collide.

This discovery is unprecedented by humans, because black holes have never come this close before. Because they are supermassive black holes, scientists are still apprehensive about what might happen in the event of a potential collision.

It must take time for the collision to occur

Even if this confrontation is closer in astronomical years, relative to human time, this collision will still be a long time to see. The expectation is that this phenomenon will occur due to the merger between dwarf galaxies.

Studying these mergers is important for determining the history of black holes in the Milky Way, the galaxy that houses the solar system and, by extension, Earth.

The star may have escaped from a black hole

Scientists have discovered another event involving black holes, where a star may have resisted the gravitational field of one. When the star came close to the hole’s gravitational field, it must have experienced TDE, which is the complete destruction of that stellar body. However, the light from the star was spotted years later, which could mean partial destruction never seen before.

All-Sky’s automatic survey of supernovae detected the explosion of the star, which was emitting an intense glow that faded over the years. However, 600 days after the initial detection, the brightness faded, which had not happened before. 600 days after it went out, the glow came out again.