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Black Hole Billiards in the Centers of Galaxies

Illustration of a swarm of smaller black holes in a gas disk rotating around a giant black hole . Interactions between three black holes, such as those shown in the foreground, occur relatively often and will with high probability result in a merger on a non-circular orbit (credit: J. Samsing/Niels Bohr Institute)

Researchers provide the first plausible explanation to why one of the most massive black hole pairs observed to date by gravitational waves also seemed to merge on a non-circular orbit. Their suggested solution, now published in Nature, involves a chaotic triple drama inside a giant disk of gas around a super massive black hole in a galaxy far, far away.

Black holes are one of the most fascinating objects in the Universe, but our knowledge of them is still limited — especi...

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