НАСА infra-red observatory Spitzer has recently observed the flare from gigantic binary Чорна діра system OJ 287, within the estimated time interval predicted by the model developed by astrophysicists. This observation has tested different aspects of General Relativity, the “No-hair theorem”, and proved that OJ 287 is indeed a source of infra-red Гравітаційні хвилі.
Команда ОВ 287 галактика, situated in Cancer constellation 3.5 billion light years away from Earth, has two чорних дір – the larger one with over 18 billion times the маса of the Sun and orbiting this is a smaller Чорна діра with about 150 million times the solar маса, and they form a binary Чорна діра system. While orbiting the larger one, the smaller Чорна діра crashes through the enormous accretion disk of gas and dust surrounding its larger companion, creating a flash of light brighter than a trillion Число зірок:.
Чим менше Чорна діра collides with the accretion disk of the larger one twice in every twelve years. However, due to its irregular oblong орбіта (called quasi-Keplarian in the mathematical terminology, as shown in the figure below), the flares can appear at different times – sometimes as little as one year apart; other times, as much as 10 years apart (1). Several attempts to model the орбіта and predicting when flares would happen were unsuccessful until in 2010, when astrophysicists created a model that could predict their occurrence with an error of about one to three weeks. The accuracy of the model was demonstrated by predicting the appearance of a flare in December 2015 to within three weeks.
Another important piece of information that went into the making of a successful theory of binary Чорна діра system OJ 287 is the fact that supermassive чорних дір can be sources of гравітаційні хвилі – which has been established after the experimental observation of the гравітаційні хвилі in 2016, produced during the merging of two supermassive чорних дір. OJ 287 has been predicted to be the source of infra-red гравітаційні хвилі (2).
In 2018, a group of astrophysicists provided an even more detailed model, and claimed to be able to predict the timing of future flares to within few hours (3). According to this model, the next flare would occur on July 31, 2019 and the time was predicted with an error of 4.4 hours. It also predicted the brightness of the impact-induced flare to take place during that event. The event was captured and confirmed by НАСА точилка Простір Telescope (4), which retired in January 2020. To observe the predicted event, Spitzer was our only hope since this flare could not be seen by any other telescope on the ground or in Earth’s орбіта, as the Sun was in Cancer constellation with OJ 287 and Earth being on opposite sides of it. This observation also proved that OJ 287 emits гравітаційні хвилі in the infra-red wavelength, as predicted. According to this proposed theory the impact-induced flare from OJ 287 is expected to take place in 2022.
Спостереження за цими спалахами накладають обмеження на «Немає теореми про волосся” (5,6) which states that while чорних дір don’t have true surfaces, there is a boundary around them beyond which nothing – not even light – can escape. This boundary is called the event horizon. This theorem also postulates that the matter which forms a black-hole or is falling into it “disappears” behind the Чорна діра event horizon and is therefore permanently inaccessible to external observers, suggesting that чорних дір have “no hair”. One immediate consequence of the theorem is that the чорних дір can be characterized completely with their маса, electric charge and intrinsic spin. According to some scientists, this outer edge of the black-hole, i.e. the event horizon, could be bumpy or irregular, thus contradicting the “No hair theorem”. However, if one has to prove the correctness of the “No hair theorem”, the only plausible explanation is that the uneven mass distribution of the large black-hole would distort the простір around it in such a manner that it would lead to a change of path of the smaller Чорна діра, and in turn change the timing of the black hole’s collision with the accretion disk on that particular орбіта, thus causing a change in the time of appearance of the flares observed.
Як можна очікувати, чорних дір are hard to probe. Hence, as we move forward, many more experimental observations regarding Чорна діра interactions, with the surroundings as well as with other black holes, are to be studied before one can confirm the validity of the “No hair theorem”.
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Список використаної літератури:
- Валтонен В., Золя С., та ін. 2016, «Спін первинної чорної діри в OJ287, визначений столітнім спалахом загальної відносності», Astrophys. J. Lett. 819 (2016) № 2, L37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/819/2/L37
- Abbott BP., та ін. 2016. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), «Спостереження гравітаційних хвиль від злиття бінарної чорної діри», Phys. Преподобний Летт. 116, 061102 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
- Дей Л., Валтонен М. Дж., Гопакумар А. та ін 2018. «Автентифікація присутності релятивістської масивної двійкової чорної діри в OJ 287 з використанням її столітнього спалаху загальної відносності: покращені орбітальні параметри», Астрофіз. J. 866, 11 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aadd95
- Лейн С., Дей Л., та ін 2020. «Спітцерові спостереження за прогнозованим спалахом Еддінгтона з Blazar OJ 287». Astrophysical Journal Letters, вип. 894, № 1 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab79a4
- Gürlebeck, N., 2015. “Теорема без волосся для чорних дір в астрофізичних середовищах”, Physical Review Letters, 114, 151102 (2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.151102
- Хокінг Стівен В. та інші 2016. М'яке волосся на чорних дірах. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.00921.pdf
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