Linked Questions

10 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do we know that supermassive black holes can gain mass by means other than merging with other supermassive black holes?

I just stumbled across the following answer "update" from 2013: This just in, recent observations have ruled out the possibility that SMBHs gain mass only through merging with other black ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
20 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why can't supermassive black holes merge? (or can they?)

The CNet article Astronomers discover two supermassive black holes in a death spiral links to Discovery of a Close-separation Binary Quasar at the Heart of a z ~ 0.2 Merging Galaxy and Its ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
3 votes
3 answers
3k views

How far from Betelgeuse is its habitable zone?

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant or hypergiant in the constellation Orion. It is one of the biggest and brightest stars seen from the Earth, and is expected to soon go supernova. The habitable zone, or ...
Ioannes's user avatar
  • 1,108
26 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why do we believe that the super massive black holes at the centers of two merging galaxies would themselves merge?

When listening to podcasts or watching youtube videos of astronomers discussing galaxy mergers, I often hear talk about how the super massive black holes at their centers will themselves merge during ...
asgallant's user avatar
  • 601
4 votes
2 answers
953 views

What would happen if a Sun-like star were to consume a Jupiter-like planet?

A substantial number of discovered exoplanet systems are likely contain more than one gas giant with distances far closer to the star than in our solar system. It is known that in solar system ...
Skyblade's user avatar
  • 143
10 votes
1 answer
5k views

What are the chances of a star colliding with another during a galactic collision?

My specific example for the question is the future collision of the galaxies Milky Way (our own galaxy) and Andromeda in a couple billion years. The star in question is obviously the sun in this case. ...
HotSaucey's user avatar
  • 1,093
2 votes
4 answers
1k views

What are the differences between astronomy and cosmology?

Are astronomy and cosmology same? If not, what are the differences? And which one is greater in terms of subject area?
S. M. JAHANGIR's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
873 views

Are there galaxies with 2 or more super massive black holes orbiting each other?

We now know that most stellar systems have 2 or more stars orbiting each other. Do we know of any galaxies which have 2 or more super massive black holes orbiting each other? Is it possible?
Bingohank's user avatar
  • 465
9 votes
2 answers
633 views

How likely are planets to form after neutron star collisions?

It is well known that planetary collisions can create moons orbiting the result of the merger if they happen in the correct way, and this is how the Earth's moon is believed to have been formed. See ...
Mr. Nichan's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
331 views

Why would the merger of spinning black holes within the accretion disk of a supermassive black hole cause them to "shoot straight up" out of the disk?

I just tried to read the new New York Times article Two Black Holes Colliding Not Enough? Make It Three which links to the new 25-June-2020 Physical Review Letter Graham et al. Candidate ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
2 votes
4 answers
244 views

Milky Way Formation

Is the Milky Way a collection of merged galaxies, or has it only been one galaxy that was created from the interstellar media?
LDC3's user avatar
  • 2,066
6 votes
1 answer
518 views

Does the Final-Parsec problem apply to stellar collisions?

The final parsec problem describes the difficulty of two blackholes merging with one another when their distances reach ~3.2 light years apart. Does this also then apply to stellar collisions, perhaps ...
Shawn Lim's user avatar
  • 385
5 votes
1 answer
434 views

If two stars collide, what is the probability that they merge to form a single star?

After looking at What are the odds that the Sun hits another star? and answering it (crudely), now I'd like to ask the following: What is the probability that if two stars collide, their cores merge ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,733
1 vote
2 answers
367 views

Binary pairings that haven't been discovered yet?

Question: Are there any kinds of binary pairings that haven't been discovered yet? Any that are particularly significant, or that might shed some light on binary stellar evolution or theories of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
6 votes
2 answers
524 views

Difference in energy released in stellar mass black hole merger and supermassive black hole merger

Super massive black holes are usually millions of times more massive than stellar mass black holes. I have read on SE and over internet that 3M☉ worth of energy is released in black hole mergers (not ...
Knu8's user avatar
  • 528

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