TapTechNews reports on May 11 that astronomers, by observing gravitational waves, have discovered that some binary black hole orbits may be egg-shaped, displaying unusual wobbling, shedding light on their formation process.
Astronomers using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US, the Virgo interferometer in Italy, and the large cryogenic gravitational wave telescope KAGRA in Japan have observed that the orbits of binary black hole systems are elliptical.
Nihar Gupta, lead author of the study from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany and the University of Maryland in the US, said: 'We've found that most binary black hole orbits are 'nearly circular,' with 'near' meaning that the distance between the black holes decreases over time due to the emission of gravitational waves.'
Gupta and his colleagues analyzed data from 57 pairs of binary black holes detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. The research team also discovered that the top of the egg-shaped elliptical orbits rotates as the black holes orbit each other.
TapTechNews attached reference: Cracking! Some binary black holes may roll around each other in egg-shaped orbits