Black holes may now be zipping through space at a staggering speed of just under 10 percent of the speed of light. Based on simulations of collisions between these extreme bodies, this is the maximum velocity a black hole can achieve after an energetic collision. This is much faster than previous calculations, and while there is still much to learn about how black holes collide, we are getting closer to understanding these violent events and their aftermath. suggesting. “We were able to accurately estimate the ultimate recoil resulting from the high-energy collision of two black holes,” write Rochester Institute of Technology researchers James Healy and Carlos Roost.

“Extrapolating extreme spin resulted in an estimated ultimate recoil value of 17,562 ± 210 miles per second, with the limit set at less than 10 percent of the speed of light.” Autoplay; Writing to clipboard. encrypted media. gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share”allowfullscreen> When two black holes merge, the final product does not necessarily stay in place and assume the position of the original galactic orbit as a binary star. , which can cause a “kicking” recoil. “They. The final black hole is the product of two of his original black holes, going with new trajectories and speeds. This happens when the gravitational energy is unevenly distributed and emitted more in one direction. This is a result of the unequal mass and/or spin of the pair of black holes before they merged. Previous estimates put the maximum speed at which this effect could occur is about 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles) per second relative to the point of origin.

So far, a violent black hole has been discovered that scientists believe is the product of a recoil shock. Its speed is about 1,542 kilometers per second. But defining the limits of this process can help astronomers understand how common it is. This is important information for black hole research. For example, black holes have been discovered that are more massive than theory suggests. A large number of black holes flying around after a collision could explain this. As more black holes move, the likelihood of collisions increases, and as a result, the mass of black holes can exceed the mass limit for nuclear decay. Initial configuration for the ultimate binary black hole collision. (Healy & Lousto, Reverend Physics. Lett., 2023) Healy and Roast used supercomputers to perform 1,381 complete numerical simulations of the collision between two similarly-massed black holes with opposite spins along their orbital planes. . This is how it reached its top speed of 28,562 kilometers (17,748 miles) per second. That’s over 100 million kilometers per hour. An object traveling through the Milky Way from around the Sun has an escape velocity of 497 kilometers per second.

The fastest human-made object to date is the Parker Solar Probe, which will reach 163 kilometers per second in 2021. So are black holes in optimal collision conditions? Pretty fast. Fortunately, the odds of exactly the scenario envisioned by the researchers are fairly slim. However, the discovery of extreme limits will define the framework for future research. In fact, knowing that is a little comforting. A study done a few years ago found that reading those words could cause hundreds of black holes to pierce the Milky Way in recoil. If they were a little slower, the idea would seem a little less intimidating (although you probably won’t run into them anyway).

source: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.071401