What Happens to Black Holes when Two Galaxies Collide?
A student asks: If galaxies have black holes and if two neighboring galaxies were colliding, would the two colliding galaxies create one big black hole?
Answer: You pose an excellent question from a few different physics viewpoints. The Hubble Constant tells us that every galaxy in the universe pulling away from each other. Astronomers acknowledge that when it comes to local areas of the universe this is often not true. We know that the Milky Way Galaxy will collide with our neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy in five billion years. There are many examples of interacting galaxies that we can see from Earth that are on a collision course with each other. Today’s extremely powerful telescopes have detected vast plumes or jets emitted from the polar axis of black holes in the core of galaxies and quasi-stellar objects. It has been learned that after a large star caves in on itself which then creates a supernova which a small black hole can form in its heart. Supernovae provide us with so much information about colliding galaxies and black holes that there is an entire division of astronomy committed to the study of supernovae. This is why we at Windowpane Observatory have made possible the name a star program, which grants science enthusiasts the opportunity to give to research into supernovae, as well as the search for earth-crossing asteroids.