Universe  ID: 10544

Black Hole Binary Creates Gravity Waves

Released on January 26, 2010
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.
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This animation shows the elliptical orbit on one black hole around another. It has very visible gravitational waves.
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This animation shows the elliptical orbit of one black hole around another with fainter waves.
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This animation offers several perspectives of black holes orbiting a supermassive black hole.

Credits

Dana Berry (Skyworks Digital): Lead Animator
Michael McClare (HTSI): Producer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10544

This item is part of this series:
Astrophysics Animations

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Space science
SVS >> Black Hole
SVS >> Astrophysics
SVS >> LISA
SVS >> Universe
NASA Science >> Universe