Black Hole Discovered in Our Neighboring Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud – National Geographic

Enjoy 3 FREE National Geographic magazines and be part of the movement for a more sustainable world. MORE INFO Enjoy our special editions at a single price for being a subscriber. DISCOVER THEM The discovery is the least paradoxical, since its authors are unofficially known as the “black hole police” specialized in discrediting the supposed discovery of this type of celestial objects on other repeated occasions. “For the first time, our team came together to report on the discovery of a black hole, rather than refute it,” says study leader Tomer Shenar. “We identified a needle in a haystack,” he continues. Although other similar black hole candidates have been proposed, the team says this is the first “dormant” stellar-mass black hole to be unambiguously detected outside our galaxy. The results of the research are detailed in an article published this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics under the title “An X-ray quiet black hole born with a negligible kick in a massive binary of the Large Magellanic Cloud”. Dormant Black Holes, Hard-to-Detect Discrete Astronomical Objects Stellar-mass black holes form when massive stars reach the end of their lives and collapse under their own gravity. In a binary system, a system of two stars revolving around each other, this process leaves an orbiting black hole with a luminous companion star. Thus, astronomers understand that a black hole is asleep if it does not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which is how such black holes are typically detected. “But it’s amazing that we barely know about dormant black holes, given how common astronomers think they are,” explains study co-author Pablo Marchant. The newly discovered black hole is at least 9 times the mass of our Sun and orbits a blue star. hot with 25 times the mass of our starInactive black holes are particularly difficult to detect since they do not interact much with their surroundings. ” For more than two years, we have been looking for this type of binary black hole system “, explains the co-author of the study, the researcher at the European Southern Observatory, Julia Bodensteiner. “ I was very excited when I heard about VFTS 243, which in my opinion is the most compelling candidate reported to date.” A black hole in our cosmic neighborhood of the Large Magellanic Cloud Tarantula and look for those that were likely to have black hole companions Identifying these companions as black holes is extremely difficult as there are many alternative possibilities More information This is the eerie sound of a hole supermassive black “As a researcher who has debunked potential black holes in recent years, I was extremely skeptical of this discovery,” says Shenar, a skepticism shared by study co-author Kareem El-Badry of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. & Smithsonian, whom Shenar calls the “black hole destroyer.” “When Tomer asked me When he double-checked his findings, I had my doubts. But I couldn’t find a plausible explanation for the data that didn’t involve a black hole,” explains El-Badry. Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud Shining brightly some 160,000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is one of the most spectacular regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way Galaxy packed with clusters stars, glowing gas clouds, and scattered remnants of supernova explosions. Photo: ESO The discovery also gives the team a unique insight into the processes that accompany the formation of black holes. Astronomers believe that a stellar-mass black hole forms when the core of a dying massive star collapses, however it remains unclear whether or not this should be accompanied by a powerful supernova explosion. “The star that formed the black hole in VFTS 243 appears to have completely collapsed, with no sign of a previous explosion,” explains Shenar. “And our study provides some of the most direct evidence of this phenomenon to date.” to specify that the finding could have huge implications for explaining the origin of black hole mergers in the cosmos. their work may facilitate the discovery of other stellar-mass black holes orbiting massive stars, thousands of which are projected to exist in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds More information New James Webb Telescope images show a universe never seen before. Do you like history? Are you a photography lover? Do you want to be up-to-date with the latest scientific advances? Do you love to travel? Sign up for our Natio newsletter for free! Final Geographic!