Colliding Supermassive Black Holes Discovered in Nearby Galaxy

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January 19, 2023

Dear Reader,   This week, we’re pondering some cosmic choreography. Our lead story concerns the recent discovery of two supermassive black holes, each weighing a hundred million suns or more, locked in a gravitational dance that will eventually result in their merging as one. Astronomers have spied such things many times before, but this pair is notable for being both close to us (their host galaxy is a mere half-billion light-years away) and close together (separated by just 750 light-years or so). Studying the system could unveil new details of how, exactly, two gargantuan black holes spiral together and coalesce—a surprisingly unsolved problem of astrophysics, and a crucial component of how smaller galaxies grow into larger ones. Elsewhere this week, we have stories on laser-generated lightning, a bookish history of slime, “forbidden” exoplanets, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics

Black Holes Colliding Supermassive Black Holes Discovered in Nearby Galaxy These merging supermassive black holes are among the closest ever observed and could help unlock deeper secrets of cosmic history By Allison Parshall

Energy Scientists Fire Lasers at the Sky to Control Lightning Laser beams could be used to deflect lightning strikes from vulnerable places such as airports and wind farms By Allison Parshall

Extraterrestrial Life The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don't Know It Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings By Sarah Scoles

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Arts Death, Sex and Aliens: A Surprising History of Slime Sublime slime, sprawling light pollution, harnessing the bioelectricity in our body, and more books out this month By Amy Brady

Planetary Science Cataclysmic Collisions May Explain 'Forbidden' Exoplanets A new model could explain the scarcity of certain planet sizes By Daniel Leonard

Quantum Physics Poem: 'A Quantum Cento' Science in meter and verse By Lorraine Schein

Artificial Intelligence What an Endless Conversation with Werner Herzog Can Teach Us about AI An AI-generated conversation between Werner Herzog and Slavoj Žižek is definitely entertaining, but it also illustrates the crisis of misinformation beginning to befall us By Giacomo Miceli

FROM THE ARCHIVE Meet "Spikey," a Possible Pair of Merging Supermassive Black Holes A flare predicted for this spring could confirm the object is indeed two monstrous black holes coming together By Nola Taylor Redd | February 2020

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