When two galaxies merge, the black holes at the center, or nucleus, form into a supermassive black hole (SMBH); but not always. Researchers at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used the ROMULUS software to predict how black holes will interact with each other. They found that there could be thousands of black holes wandering thousands of light years away from the Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), making up around 10% of local black hole’s mass! Their results will help spot a wandering black hole as well as estimate the population of these wanderers.
Our solar system is about 26,000 light years away from the AGN, so you shouldn’t worry about us running across one any time soon. Click on the links below to learn more about this study, ‘wanderers’, and how the ROMULUS code works!
Origins and demographics of wandering black holes (Abstract)
A Huge Number of Rogue Supermassive Black Holes Are Wandering The Universe
‘Restless’ Supermassive Black Hole Found Mysteriously Wandering in Space
Forget Rogue Planets – Rogue Black Holes Are Wandering Out There
- Image Credit: Ricarte et al, 2021
