Two astrophysicists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggest a way to observe a black hole that is 3 million times the mass of the Sun.
An independent team of astronomy proposed a black hole in the late 21st century. The team noticed stars picking up speed as they approached the center of the galaxy, but they weren't able to see the emission of the black hole.
A study about a new way to verify the existence of a black hole was published today.
The lead author of the ApJ Letters study says that black holes are fun to play hide-and-seek with. The environment surrounding rays of light can be very bright if enough material falls into their well. If a black hole isn't accretion mass, it emits no light, making it hard to find with our telescopes.
The challenge with Leo I is that it is a dwarf galaxy so devoid of gas that it is often described as afossil. Is it possible that we will give up hope of observing it? The astronomer says that maybe not.
A small amount of mass lost from stars wandering around the black hole could be used to observe it. We call old stars red giant stars. Strong winds carry a small amount of their mass to the environment. There is enough of these ancient stars to make it observable.
The co-author of the study says that it could be a big deal. It would be the second-closest black hole after the one at the center of our galaxy, with a very similar mass but hosted by a smaller galaxy. The fact challenges everything we know about the evolution of the universe. The baby was born from a slim parent.
The mass of the black hole is a tenth of the total mass of the spheroid of stars around it.
A smaller black hole would be expected in the case of Leo I. There is a black hole a few million times the mass of the sun. Science advances the most when there is an unforeseen event.
We don't know when we will get an image of the black hole.
We are not there yet.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico have been used by the team.
It emits too much radiation to remain undetected for a long time.
Accretion from the stars may reveal the black hole in the universe. There is a book titled "10847/2041-8213/ac9b21".
Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Letters
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