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Indian-origin Sukanya Chakrabarti research on Massive black hole at edge of Milky Way
Indian-origin researcher Sukanya Chakrabarti research suggests Massive black holes might lurk on edge of Galaxy like Milky Way
Indian-origin researcher: a study says the outskirts of spiral galaxies like our own could be crowded with colliding black holes of massive proportions.
The research, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, point to a prime location for scientists hunting the sources of gravitational waves.
According to Sukanya Chakrabarti (Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology), conditions favorable for black-hole mergers exist in the outer gas disks of big spiral galaxies.
The small satellite/dwarf galaxies were thought to have the most suitable environment for hosting black-hole populations, until now.
Sukanya Chakrabarti realized the edges of galaxies like the Milky Way have similar environments to dwarf galaxies but with major advantage-big galaxies are easier to find.
Sukanya Chakrabarti said, the metal content in the outer disks of spiral galaxies is also quite low and should be rife with black holes in this large area.
A deeper understanding of the universe is possible now that scientists can combine gravitational wave astronomy with traditional measurements of bands of light.
Existing research shows that even black holes, which are too dense for light to escape, have a gravitational wave and an optical counterpart, remnants of matter from the stellar collapse from which they formed.
