Let’s be honest, there’s something fascinating – yet truly terrifying – about black holes.

These weird quirks of space have such an incredible gravitational pull that once you’re past the point of no return – known as the event horizon – you’re not making it out again.

In fact, you’re about to be subject to a process called spaghettification, in which everything (light, planets, spacecraft) is effectively turned into spaghetti.

It sounds scary, even more so because we don’t actually know that much about them, besides the fact that they break the laws of physics – but the truth is that black holes are so far away from our planet, that there’s really nothing to worry about.

With their great distance from Earth in mind, black holes can become less fearsome and more interesting – especially as researchers draw on rapidly developing technology to learn more about them.

And a recent paper from researchers at the University of Turku in Finland is no exception.

The study, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal, details not only new visuals of black holes, but the never-before-seen phenomenon of two black holes orbiting one another.

While Turku-based researchers proved the existence of these two black holes several years ago, visual evidence of their presence and behavior was not possible at the time.

But thanks to NASA’s TESS satellite, some immense calculations, and a radio telescope system, this curious phenomenon can finally be seen.

In a statement about the new images, Turku’s Mauri Valtonen explained the fascinating black holes, and the unprecedented success of capturing them, in a statement:

“For the first time, we managed to get an image of two black holes circling each other. In the image, the black holes are identified by the intense particle jets they emit. The black holes themselves are perfectly black, but they can be detected by these particle jets or by the glowing gas surrounding the hole.”

Located at the centre of a quasar (a bright galactic core) called OJ287, the orbiting black holes at its centre make it quite unique – so far as we know, at least.

Moreover, the visual evidence has led the research team to a further discovery. Thanks to the speed at which the smaller black hole is orbiting its larger companion, the jet that follows it wiggles like a garden hose, its trajectory frequently disrupted by its speed and motion.

As the question of dual black holes is answered, the astrophysical phenomena get more and more interesting (or more and more scary, depending on how you look at it).

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