How do massive black holes merge?
Jurik Peter/Shutterstock
Supermassive black holes can merge, but for decades astrophysicists have been unaware of how this happens. Now, in the form of dark matter, they may finally have an answer.
When a pair of galaxies collide, the supermassive black holes at their centers usually start orbiting each other. Over millions of years, these massive black holes gravitationally interact with nearby material, knocking it away. This process creates friction, gradually slowing the black holes down, causing them to spiral closer together.
But by the time they arrived…
