A coming sky survey will help test a wild idea — that a grapefruit-sized black hole lurks undiscovered in the outer solar system .
Over the past few years, researchers have noticed an odd clustering in the orbits of multiple trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which dwell in the dark depths of the far outer solar system. Some scientists have hypothesized that the TNOs' paths have been sculpted by the gravitational pull of a big object way out there, something five to 10 times more massive than Earth (though others think the TNOs may just be tugging on each other ).
And here's another article:
Did a black-hole merger create a flash in a distant quasar? – Physics World
A recent electromagnetic signal from a distant quasar could have been created by merging black holes, according to an international team of astronomers led by Matthew Graham at the California Institute of Technology. The researchers made the connection after modelling the aftermath of such a merger in an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and their calculations predict a second related flare from the quasar in the future.
Over the past several years, the LIGO–Virgo observatories have detected gravitational waves from merging black holes. So far, these observations have largely originated from ancient clusters of stellar remnants and no electromagnetic signals from the mergers have been observed. However, Graham's team believe that electromagnetic signals could be generated when black-hole mergers occur in AGNs including quasars.
Black hole news: Ghost galaxy offers breakthrough in birth of supermassive black holes | Science
According to one theory, supermassive black holes were born shortly after the Big Bang in a process dubbed a "direct collapse".
In this scenario, extremely large supermassive black holes would have been born with a fixed minimum size and weight hundreds of thousands to millions of times than our Sun.
In this case, SMBHs would start out small - about 1,000 times heavier than our Sun - and feed on surrounding stars and gas to gradually grown in mass.
Astronomers witness black hole collision give off unexpected light
Astronomers have observed a bright flash of light from space, which appears to have come from a collision between two black holes. And that's surprising, considering that black holes are famously dark objects.
Now, astronomers have spotted the unspottable – light from an apparent black hole collision. The event started like any other. On May 21, 2019, LIGO and Virgo detected gravitational waves from a pretty stock standard black hole merger.
It wasn't until later that scientists realized they'd captured something more. Months later, a team was examining archival data from Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and discovered a flare of light that began a few days after the gravitational wave event, and faded over the next few weeks.
Other things to check out:
Black holes: What are they and how did we discover them? - BBC Science Focus Magazine
Black holes have escaped from astrophysics into the everyday imagination. Yet the gaps in our knowledge of their nature and even, possibly, their existence are considerable.
Black holes were born from theory, not observation. We have known about conventional stars for as long as we've been able to look up at a clear night sky.
But no one ever saw a black hole. Instead, they were predicted to exist at a time when there was no way of checking whether there was any such thing out there. And that prediction happened not once, but twice.
Zooming Video Shows How Impressive the First Black Hole Photo Was
Unraveling the Mystery of Black Holes | Tufts Now
Black holes are among the most fascinating phenomena of outer space, and we're learning more about them all the time. Just last week, a group of astronomers published a paper documenting a rare visible collision of black holes, which produced a flash of light that allowed scientists to see the event from Earth.
From Star Trek to Doctor Who to The Orville , science fiction often incorporates black holes into story lines, in large part because there's still so much we don't know. But Alexander Vilenkin isn't daunted at all by this vast and complex subject. The Leonard and Jane Holmes Bernstein Professor in Evolutionary Science in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts, he has studied theoretical cosmology, including dark energy, cosmic strings, and the multiverse, for decades.
Councils' finance black hole could cut heart out of town centres - About Manchester
A £10 billion Covid-19 shortfall in council finances could threaten the full reopening of our town centres, leading to already struggling high streets closing for good, with libraries and leisure centres never reopening after the end of the pandemic, according to new research by Labour.
Councils in England spent over £800 million last year to support economic development in their town centres, including measures to help small businesses to grow, as well as hundreds of millions in capital funding.
Happening on Twitter
Elusive 'Planet Nine' may actually be a grapefruit-sized black hole https://t.co/wbpzYFGLUG MailOnline Mon Jul 13 22:31:06 +0000 2020
Puzzling 'Planet Nine' May Be a Grapefruit-Sized Black Hole https://t.co/XhpTFKaZW4 nerdist Mon Jul 13 20:03:00 +0000 2020
"A balanced diet does not include meat and sausages every day" Per-capita meat consumption falls to lowest level… https://t.co/mxr410ZD8h Greenpeace (from Global) Wed Jul 08 11:15:04 +0000 2020
Scientists at Harvard University and the Black Hole Initiative have developed a new method for detecting black hole… https://t.co/a03RvcDKv9 nerdist Tue Jul 14 00:05:16 +0000 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment