For the first time, light can be detected from the collision between two black holes

According to Space, astronomers may have seen light from two colliding black holes for the first time.

Cosmic black holes are completely dark and therefore cannot be observed with light-detecting telescopes. Until now, the only way astronomers could observe colliding black holes was by studying the resulting gravitational waves.

Image of two merging black holes.

Gravitational waves are oscillations in the structure of time-space, produced by violent collisions between massive objects such as black holes and neutrons. Since the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, scientists have been observing gravitational waves, learning their origin and the impacting objects that may have produced them.

Because black holes have such strong gravity that even light cannot escape, they are difficult to observe, and astronomers have yet to determine with the naked eye a collision between two black holes.

According to a statement from NASA, while black holes are completely dark, there are theories that collisions or mergers between black holes can produce light signals through a matter that surrounds them. how to cause matter to emit radiation. A team of astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observatory in California think they may have detected such a light signal.

Gravitational waves produced by the merger between black holes were discovered by scientists on May 21, 2019 using two different gravitational wave detectors. The gravitational waves they detected originated from a collision event dubbed GW190521g. Scientists think that GW190521g could be a collision between two black holes.

Astronomers used the ZTF to observe the universe and look for light signals from this collision. If confirmed, it would be the first time that light has been used as evidence of two black holes colliding and creating gravitational waves.