Black holes are one of the most amazing objects in the universe. Massive stars lose their outer layers in a massive explosion when they collapse at the end of their lives. The stellar remnant becomes so dense that its gravity is so intense that nothing can escape it's surface. Conventional optical telescopes can be used to look at objects in visible light.
Astronomers usually look for black holes in non- visible wavelength or observe their effect on objects in their vicinity. A team of astronomer led by the University of Alabama Huntsville observed a black hole after consulting the Gaia Data Release 3. The monster black hole is twelve times the mass of our Sun and is located over a thousand light-years away. The black hole has a mass that is close to the sun.
The study was led by a professor. The astronomer from the Carnegie Institute for Science, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the SETI Institute, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, the University of Notre Dame, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Hawaii, and Yale were also present. The paper that describes their findings is being reviewed by a journal.
Astronomers want to study the laws of physics under the most extreme conditions, and black holes are a good place to start. In some cases, like the SMBH that resides at the center of most massive galaxies, they play a vital role in the formation and evolution of the universe. There are still unanswered questions about the role black holes have in the evolution of the universe. The black hole in the system does not draw material from the stellar companion. According to a press release, Dr. Chakrabari said.
It's not known how the black holes affect the dynamics of the universe. They could affect the formation of our galaxy and its internal dynamics if they are many. We searched for objects that could be attributed to a single visible star, but which were reported to have large companion mass. You have a good reason to believe that the companion is not normal.
The data from the Gaia DR3 was used to find the black hole. The Lick Observatory's Automated Planet Finder, the Giant Magellan Telescope, and the W.M. Keck Observatory were all used to follow up on sources of interest. The stars were shown to be subject to a powerful force. The doctor explained :
The pull of the black hole on the visible sun-like star can be determined from the spectroscopic measurement. By analyzing the line-of-sight velocities of the visible star, we can see how big the black hole companion is, as well as the period of rotation, and how eccentric the orbits is. The Gaia solution indicated that the system is composed of a visible star that is in close proximity to a very large object.
Black holes are easier to see in visible light because they are in tighter circles. The material forms a torus-shaped accretion disk around the black hole that is very energetic and emits X-ray radiation. The presence of black holes has to be inferred from the motions of the stars. Said Dr.
“The majority of black holes in binary systems are in X-ray binaries – in other words, they are bright in X-rays due to some interaction with the black hole, often due to the black hole devouring the other star. As the stuff from the other star falls down this deep gravitational potential well, we can see X-rays. In this case, we’re looking at a monster black hole, but it’s on a long-period orbit of 185 days, or about half a year. It’s pretty far from the visible star and not making any advances toward it.”
The techniques used by Dr. Chakrabarti and her colleagues could lead to the discovery of more non-interacting systems. Estimates show that there could be a million visible stars in our universe. The search for a fraction of its stellar population has been narrowed thanks to the precise measurement of the Gaia Observatory. The data on the positions and proper motions of over one billion objects has been obtained by Gaia.
Astronomers will be able to learn more about the formation of black holes from further studies. Dr. Chakrabarti summarized what he had said.
“There are currently several different routes that have been proposed by theorists, but noninteracting black holes around luminous stars are a very new type of population. So, it will likely take us some time to understand their demographics, and how they form, and how these channels are different – or if they’re similar – to the more well-known population of interacting, merging black holes.”
ArXiv is further reading.
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