Supermassive black holes in a ‘death spiral’ could collide – what impact will it have on Earth?

The first of a series of images which gives an artistic representation of the merger of two black holes, which orbit each other for hundreds of millions of years before colliding (Picture: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart/Cover Media)

Astronomers have identified what appears to be two supermassive black holes that could collide within a century, sending out huge gravitational waves that will be felt on Earth.

The bizarre event, which sees the two black holes engaged in a ‘death spiral’ that will eventually result in a spectacular merging, is located in the galaxy Markarian 501 around 500 million light-years from Earth.

It had previously been classified as a blazar — a bright galactic core typically powered by a single black hole.

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