RIT leads a NASA-funded research project to explore electromagnetic signals from supermassive black hole mergers, aiming to advance our understanding of galaxies’ formation and evolution through high-precision simulations. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Manuela Campanelli to lead research team studying electromagnetic signals from merging supermassive black holes.
Rochester Institute of Technology scientists will be the lead researchers on a $1.8 million
The team will combine astrophysical knowledge with state-of-the-art simulations to study the gas flows surrounding binary
RIT scientists have received a NASA grant to study supermassive black holes by creating advanced simulations that will help identify and understand cosmic events. This visualization is part of the team’s early work. Credit: Lorenzo Ennoggi and Jay Kalinani/RIT
“This project aims to drive major steps forward in our understanding of supermassive black holes spiraling into one another at the core of a merged galaxy,” explained Campanelli. “The combined expertise of our team will pave the way for new discoveries.”
The research will have a profound impact on understanding cosmological evolution and will play a critical role in identifying and locating supermassive black hole binaries. Advanced simulations and the world’s largest supercomputers will support the investigations. Lorenzo Ennoggi, an astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. student, is also part of the RIT team.
“We have developed all the necessary tools to perform these very challenging simulations, and we are ready to start our investigations,” said Ennoggi. “This is unexplored territory, so whatever we find will be entirely new.”
Studying how black holes merge when galaxies collide will help scientists further understand how galaxies form and evolve. By focusing on the behavior of gas and matter as they are drawn into black holes at various stages of the galaxy merger, the research team aims to create the most accurate and realistic predictions of light signals to date.