Blackhole fusion is one of the most powerful processes in the universe. Closer and closer spinning, the black holes lose energy by emitting sufficiently strong gravitational waves so that we can register them using ground-based detectors such as LIGO or VIRGO.
The law of conservation of momentum acts equally on the shooter who discharged the rifle, feeling a strong recoil in the shoulder, and on huge black holes. Approaching each other along an ever-narrowing spiral, they move faster until they merge in a catastrophic process, scattering gravitational waves to the sides.
The resulting hole receives a powerful impulse, which is able to throw it away from the “mother” galaxy. The speed of such objects can reach several thousand kilometers per second, exceeding the second cosmic speed for almost any possible galaxy.
Vijay Varma and his colleagues learned how to analyze the gravitational signal from merging black holes and to calculate the “runaway” speed of the resulting hole, predicting whether it will leave its galaxy or stay in it. An article by scientists from California and Massachusetts Institute of Technology was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
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