Dr. Eileen Meyer & Colleagues Discuss Black Holes in Hangout

What happens if two black holes collide? Scientists have found evidence that such an event took place during the merging of two galaxies. The result? New observations show that a monster black hole was actually ejected from such a collision site, being given a kick from gravitational waves from the collision. The amount of energy required is enormous!  Probably the equivalent energy of 100 million supernovas exploding simultaneously.  Observations show that the runaway black hole is the most massive ever found so distant from its origin.  

Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian during Afternoon Astronomy Coffee as they discuss with Marco Chiaberge (Space Telescope Science Institute), Eileen Meyer (University of Baltimore, Baltimore County) and Grant Tremblay (Yale University) as they discuss the discovery and observations of this remarkable event and how they arrived at the exciting result that the black hole was kicked out with gravitational waves.

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