The biggest black hole merger ever observed could be less massive than it appears

Image: Phys.org
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- After analyzing infrared images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of researchers has discovered multiple massive black holes from approximately 12.5–12.8 billion years ago that were actively accumulating surrounding matter and growing rapidly. Some were even…
- Hawking radiation causes black holes to eventually evaporate. This is because particle pairs are spontaneously created near the event horizon (the position of the last ray of light that can escape the black hole's gravitational pull). A particle and its antiparticle are created for a brief moment…
- Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime created when pairs of black holes spiral into each other and eventually merge. But if this ripple has been warped by another massive object on its way to Earth, a new analysis suggests that these black holes might appear far larger than they really are.