黑洞世界的双重翘曲

2021年04月16日

The Doubly Warped World of Binary Black Holes
Scientific Visualization Credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jeremy Schnittman and Brian P. Powell – Text: Francis Reddy

Explanation: Light rays from accretion disks around a pair of orbiting supermassive black holes make their way through the warped space-time produced by extreme gravity in this stunning computer visualization. The simulated accretion disks have been given different false color schemes, red for the disk surrounding a 200-million-solar-mass black hole, and blue for the disk surrounding a 100-million-solar-mass black hole. That makes it easier to track the light sources, but the choice also reflects reality. Hotter gas gives off light closer to the blue end of the spectrum and material orbiting smaller black holes experiences stronger gravitational effects that produce higher temperatures. For these masses, both accretion disks would actually emit most of their light in the ultraviolet though. In the video, distorted secondary images of the blue black hole, which show the red black hole’s view of its partner, can be found within the tangled skein of the red disk warped by the gravity of the blue black hole in the foreground. Because we’re seeing red’s view of blue while also seeing blue directly, the images allow us to see both sides of blue at the same time. Red and blue light originating from both black holes can be seen in the innermost ring of light, called the photon ring, near their event horizons. Astronomers expect that in the not-too-distant future they’ll be able to detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time, produced when two supermassive black holes in a system much like the one simulated here spiral together and merge.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels over the weekend

黑洞世界的双重翘曲
科学视像提供: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jeremy Schnittman and Brian P. Powell – 文稿: Francis Reddy

说明: 在这部引人赞叹的电脑视像里，源自一对互绕超大质量黑洞的吸积盘之光线，穿过极端强烈重力造成的翘曲时空。这部模拟里以不同的色泽为吸积盘上色，2百万太阳质量黑洞的吸积盘为红色，而1百万太阳质量黑洞的吸积盘为蓝色。这种色泽选择，除了易于追踪光的来源之外，也反应事实。因为较热的气体，所发出的光偏蓝，而旋绕较小黑洞的物质，感受较强的重力效应，因此温度较高。不过，在上述质量范围黑洞的吸积盘，事实上发出的光在紫外光波段。在这部影片里，前景蓝洞重力造成的翘曲红盘纠结绞线内之扭曲蓝洞二次影像，是红洞眼里互绕伙伴。由于我们见到红洞眼里的蓝洞之时，同时也直接看到蓝洞，因此这些影像让我们同时见到蓝洞的二侧。此外，源自这二颗黑洞的红与蓝光，同时出现在称为光子环、它们事件视界附近的最内围环状光之上。天文学家希望在不久的未来，他们能侦测到类似此例这种超大质量黑洞系统，在回旋靠近及合并时，所发出的重力波（或称为时空结构上的涟漪）。 （photon ring 光子环）

明日的图片: pixels over the weekend