Scientists have developed a new method that will detect roughly ten black holes per year, doubling the number currently known withing two years, and unlock their history in a little more than a decade.
“Within the next ten years, there will be sufficient accumulated data on enough black holes that researchers can statistically analyse their properties as a population,” Avery Broderick, Professor at University of Waterloo, said.
“his information will allow us to study stellar mass black holes at various stages that often extend billion of years,” added Broderick.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada came up with the method that has implications for the emerging field of gravitational wave astronomy and the way in which we search for black holes and other dark objects in space.
“We do not know rare these events are and how many black holes are generally distributed across the galaxy,” Broderick said.
“For the first time, we will be placing all the amazing dynamically physics that Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) sees into a larger astronomical context,” added Broderick.
Although very little is known about the inner workings of black holes, we do know they play an integral part in the lifecycle of stars and regulate the growth of galaxies.
Earlier this year, LIGO presented the first direct proof of the existence of black holes when it detected gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes merging into one.
Researchers propose a bolder approach to detecting and studying black holes, not as single entities, but in large numbers as a system by combining two standard astrophysical tools in use today: microlensing and radio wave interferometer. Gravitational microlensing occurs when a dark object such as black hole passes between us and another light source, such as star.
Even The largest telescope that observes microlensing events in visible light have a limited resolution, telling astronomers very little about the objects that passes by. Instead of using visible light, Broderick and his team propose using radio waves to take multiple snapshots of the microlensing event in real time.
“When you look at the same event using a radio telescope interferometry you can actually resolve more than one image. That is what gives us the power to extract all kinds of parameters, like the object’s mass, distance and velocity,” Mansour Karami, doctoral student University of Waterloo, said.
