Scholars found thathibernate” of the black hole. (Image source: Adobe Stock)
「black hole“It will devour all the existence around it, which is a common impression of ordinary people. It is auniversethe most extreme ofcelestial body.But recentlyastronomyIt was discovered that the black hole closest to the earth is currently known,qualityYessun10 times, is a “hibernate” of the black hole.
black hole
A “black hole” is a space-time that exhibits extremely strong gravity, and any particle cannot escape the engulfment of a black hole, even light is no exception. It is one of the most extreme celestial bodies in the universe.
Most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their core, and many large galaxies may have an extraordinary density of super objects at their centers, with stellar black holes having masses between about 5 and 100 times the mass of the sun.
Although black holes are quite common in the universe. It is said that there are hundreds of millions of black holes in the Milky Way alone, but only a few cases have been confirmed by humans so far. Almost all of them are in an active state, engulfing surrounding stars and companion stars, and emit X Rays.
However, there is another kind of black hole that is different. They are integrated with the surrounding environment, so the detection is more difficult. It is a kind of “dormant” black hole.
“Dormant” black hole
Recently, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society published the discovery of a dormant black hole. Astronomers used the International Gemini Observatory to discover the black hole that is currently known to be closest to Earth.
What was discovered this time was the first stellar “dormant” black hole discovered in the Milky Way, which was named “Gaia BH1”. Its mass is about 10 times that of the sun.
Located in the constellation Ophiuchus, this dormant black hole is only 1,600 light-years away from Earth, a third of the distance compared to the previous record holder, the Monoceros X-ray Binary.
The companion star of Gaia BH1 is a sun-like star orbiting it, and astronomers discovered the dormant black hole by observing the motion of the companion star in detail. If the solar system is taken as an example, a black hole is placed in the position of the sun, and then the sun is placed in the position of the earth, and the black hole system can be solved.
Astrophysicist Karim El-Badri, author of the study, explained: “While there have been many claims to have detected similar systems, these findings have been almost refuted. This is the first time in the Milky Way that a definitive detection has been made. Sun-like stars are orbiting stellar black holes.” They have been trying to find dormant black holes in various ways for the past four years.
process of discovery
Initially, by analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia probe, they discovered an “invisible” massive object whose gravitational pull causes tiny irregular motions of stars, which was the possibility for them to confirm the existence of black holes.
The research team used the International Gemini Observatory’s “Wide-field Multi-Object Spectrometer” in Hawaii to measure the speed of the companion star orbiting the black hole, coupled with accurate orbital period measurement data, and determined that Gaia BH1 is a mass of about 10 solar masses. times the black hole.
Scholars say that the star that becomes the black hole is at least 20 times the mass of the sun. If it formed at the same time as the observed companion star, then Gaia BH1 should become a supergiant star and devour before the companion star becomes a sun-like star, but the companion star actually does not. still alive.
It is still difficult to explain how Gaia BH1 was created, and the formation and evolution of black holes are still not fully understood, and there may be types of dormant black holes that have not yet been discovered.
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