Astronomers and computer experts from France and India have worked together to develop a ground-breaking method for spotting closely merging supermassive black holes.
With the use of a numerical technique, double nuclei galaxies are automatically located in this novel methodology, providing insights into what can happen if nearby galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda eventually collide.
The study, which was funded by the Department of Science and Technology, emphasises the importance of researching galactic collisions in order to prepare for situations like our solar system’s survival amid the turbulent mixing of stars and gas during such cosmic catastrophes.
The extremely unusual and crucially important close merging galaxies are important in this study. Double nuclei galaxies are created as a result of the nuclei of merging galaxies becoming closer to one another.
A global team of experts from APPCAIR, BITS Pilani (Goa campus), the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Allahabad University, and the Paris Observatory developed an original algorithm in recognition of the rarity of these objects.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data are used in conjunction with this programme, known as GOTHIC, to discover thousands of double-nuclei galaxies.
Of these recently found galaxies, 159 have been found to contain active galactic nuclei (AGN) or pairs of accreting supermassive black holes. GOTHIC was developed to identify galaxies that resemble MRK 739, a pioneering example of a dual AGN.
Traditional image processing techniques were used due to the lack of training data, which required sorting through a million galaxy photos. Despite these difficulties, the team’s persistent efforts led to a major improvement in our comprehension of these cosmic occurrences.