A black hole shooting out gassy material at nearly the speed of light has been caught on video by a space telescope.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory saw an outburst from the black hole and its companion star, which are part of a binary system called MAXI J1820+070 . The system is 10,000 light-years from Earth, which is relatively close to our planet in the cosmic scheme of things and allows for a detailed investigation.
As the companion star, which is about half the mass of the sun , whirls around the black hole, the strong gravity of the stellar-mass black hole — roughly eight times the mass of the sun — nabs material from the star into an accretion disk , producing a glowing sphere of gas that emits bright X-rays. Some of the gas falls back into the black hole, but some of it gets blasted away from the black hole in a pair of jets that point in opposite directions.
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Measuring the spin of a black hole
CfA astronomer James Steiner and his colleagues reanalyzed seven sets of spectra obtained by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer of an outburst from a stellar-mass black hole in our galaxy called 4U1543-47. Previous attempts to estimate the spin of the object using the continuum method resulted in disagreements between papers that were considerably larger than the formal uncertainties (the papers assumed a mass of 9.4 solar-masses and a distance of 24.7 thousand light-years).
NASA observatory tracks matter at speed of light | Military Scene | theredstonerocket.com
Astronomers have caught a black hole hurling hot material into space at close to the speed of light. This flare-up has been captured in new animated images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The black hole and its companion star make up a system called MAXI J1820+070, which resides in the Milky Way galaxy about 10,000 light-years from Earth. Formed by the destruction of a massive star, the black hole has a mass about eight times that of the Sun, identifying it as a so-called stellar-mass black hole.
Innovative model provides insight into the behavior of the black hole at the center of our galaxy
The system in question spans seven orders of magnitude. The black hole's event horizon , or envelope of no return, reaches around 4 to 8 million miles from its center. Meanwhile, the stars orbit around 20 trillion miles away, or about as far as the sun's nearest neighboring star.
"So you have to track the matter falling in from this very large scale all the way down to this very small scale," said Ressler. "And doing that in a single simulation is incredibly challenging, to the point that it's impossible." The smallest events proceed on timescales of seconds while the largest phenomena play out over thousands of years.
While you're here, how about this:
Models shed light on black hole at our galaxy's center - Futurity
Sagittarius A* spans seven orders of magnitude. The black hole's event horizon, or envelope of no return, reaches around 4 to 8 million miles from its center. Meanwhile, the stars orbit around 20 trillion miles away, or about as far as the sun's nearest neighboring star. (Credit: Getty Images )
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New research may advance the quest to get a snapshot of the black hole at the center of our galaxy.
Like most galaxies, the Milky Way hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. Called Sagittarius A*, the object has captured astronomers’ curiosity for decades. And now there is an effort to image it directly.
New model by IIA to help chalk out black hole archaeology | India News - Times of India
Coronavirus 'leaves £500m black hole in London's finances' - BBC News
Sadiq Khan has warned that services including the police and fire brigade will need to be cut back without a government bailout.
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A government spokesperson said London had been given an "unprecedented" support package to ensure essential services continued to run.
Mr Khan previously announced he would not receive any pension contributions from the Greater London Authority (GLA), which he said was "saving taxpayers 11%".
Happening on Twitter
What's more amazing than a quasar with a supermassive black hole greedily gobbling down material and expelling radi… https://t.co/c2wznwt52d BadAstronomer (from Boulder) Wed Jun 17 15:10:52 +0000 2020
Black hole caught spewing jets into space at nearly the speed of light (video) https://t.co/d3WDGcPIV9 https://t.co/TTFkL3cUmP SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Tue Jun 16 15:32:33 +0000 2020
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