Black Hole Binary Creates Gravity Waves

  • Released Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:54PM
  • ID: 10544

When smaller black holes orbit around a supermassive black hole, Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that they will emit gravitational radiation. These ripples of space-time cause the orbits to shrink and gradually brings the black holes closer enough together to merge.

This animation shows the elliptical orbit on one black hole around another. It has very visible gravitational waves.

This animation shows the elliptical orbit of one black hole around another with fainter waves.

This animation offers several perspectives of black holes orbiting a supermassive black hole.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Series

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