00:01Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe, NGC 4424
00:10Astronomers may have witnessed a galaxy's black hole delivery system in action.
00:15A new study using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope
00:22outlines how a large black hole may have been delivered to the spiral galaxy NGC 4424 by another, smaller galaxy.
00:34NGC 4424 is located about 54 million light-years from Earth in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
00:43The main panel shows a wide field view, about 45,000 light-years wide, of this galaxy in optical light
00:51from Hubble.
00:53The center of this galaxy is expected to host a large black hole, estimated to contain a mass between 60
01:00,000 and 100,000 suns.
01:03Astronomers examining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory found an elongated object,
01:09which they determined is a cluster of stars.
01:13They refer to this object as Nikuli, a name relating to the Tulini festive period of celebrating and wishing for
01:21a rich harvest.
01:22This name is taken from the Sumi language from the Indian state of Nagaland.
01:27The Chandra data shows a point source of X-rays.
01:32The researchers determined Nikuli is likely the center of a small galaxy
01:37that has had most of its stars stripped away as it collides with the larger galaxy NGC 4424.
01:46Nikuli has also been stretched out by gravitational forces as it falls towards the center of NGC 4424, giving it
01:55an elongated shape.
01:56Currently, Nikuli is about 1,300 light-years from the center of NGC 4424, or about 20 times closer than
02:06the Earth is to the Milky Way's giant black hole.
02:10After considering other possibilities, the researchers determined that these results imply that Nikuli is likely acting as a delivery system
02:19for NGC 4424's supply of black holes,
02:23in this case bringing along a massive one.
02:28If the center of NGC 4424 contains a massive black hole,
02:34Nikuli's massive black hole should end up orbiting it.
02:38The separation of the pair should then shrink until gravitational waves are produced,
02:44and the two massive black holes merge with each other.
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