Cultural historian Jacques Barzun once described science as "the glorious entertainment." There could be no better example than black holes.
In 1916, Albert Einstein published his theory that gravity is the bending of space caused by the presence of massive objects. Others soon suggested that the gravitational pull of a sufficiently massive ("heavy") but compact object might warp space so radically that even light would be unable to escape. For decades, scientists debated whether the theory actually predicted such "black holes," although Einstein's opinion was that they didn't exist.
In case you are keeping track:
Neutron star collision should have formed a black hole — but a 'magnetar' appeared
On May 22, 2020, light from a titanic explosion deep in space reached Earth. The energy seen by astronomers told of the collision of a pair of neutron stars, creating a kilonova explosion. This event, releasing more energy in a half-second than our Sun will produce in 10 billion years, left a rare object behind in the debris.
When astronomers examined the eruption, they found evidence of a magnetar — an ultradense neutron star, roughly the size of a city, housing a powerful magnetic field.
Wealth of Discoveries From Gravitational-Wave Data Leads to Most Detailed Black Hole "Family
This illustration generated by a computer model shows multiple black holes found within the heart of a dense globular star cluster. Credit: Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern University/CIERA
The observations could be a key piece in solving the many mysteries of exactly how binary stars interact. A better understanding of how binary stars evolve has consequences across astronomy, from exoplanets to galaxy formation.
Details are reported in a trio of related papers which were published in pre-print on October 28 at arxiv.org. The studies also are being submitted to peer-reviewed journals.
Astronomers Witness Star Getting Devoured By A Black Hole Kids News Article
Stars that get too close to black holes usually end up getting sucked in by the strong gravitational forces of the dense space objects, from which no light can escape. Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to observe the cosmic phenomenon — nicknamed "spaghettification" because it pulls apart a star into thin "spaghetti-like" strands — in real-time.
"When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material," said study co-author Dr. Thomas Wevers from the University of Cambridge.
Were you following this:
Do We Have the Abell-ity to Find A Recoiling Black Hole in A2261-BCG? | astrobites
Title : Chandra Observations of Abell 2261 Brightest Cluster Galaxy, a Candidate Host to a Recoiling Black Hole
Authors : K. Gültekin, S. Burke-Spolaor, T. R. Lauer, J. W. Lazio, L. A. Moustakas, P. Ogle, and M. Postman
* * *
Galaxies can come in many different shapes and sizes , from dwarf galaxies that contain only a few hundred million stars to giant spirals like the Andromeda Galaxy that house over a trillion stars. Their centers can also vary from noisy black holes emitting large jets of radiation (also known as active galactic nuclei ) to two spiraling supermassive black holes from two merged galaxies. Today's paper looks at a bright cluster galaxy and tries to figure out exactly what is at its center.
Here's what could happen if you fell into a black hole - BBC Science Focus Magazine
As a professor of physics and astronomy, Janna Levin has contributed to our growing understanding of black holes . In her new book, Black Hole Survival Guide , she takes the reader on a journey through space and into the centre of a black hole. The fall involves crossing what is known as the event horizon: the edge of a black hole, the 'point of no return'.
In this extract, the reader has approached the event horizon – crossing it is a certainty, the experience is an enigma…
Eventide Blackhole Pedal Review
Reverb pedals are typically designed to place your sounds within a space. With Eventide's Blackhole pedal, the company intends to launch your sound into outer space.
* * *
The recreation of hardware devices in software form has been a common practice for around twenty years – and several companies make excellent emulations of their own products in software form. However, Eventide 's direction here is slightly less common, releasing one of its digital reverb presets and plug-ins as a standalone pedal.
Hawking's 50-Year Mystery About Falling into Black Holes Has Finally Been Solved
If you lurch into the event horizon of a black hole, will you ever come out? According to a series of new calculations which just solved a 50-year old problem even Stephen Hawking couldn’t figure out, the answer is yes.
It’s being described as a landmark calculation—the biggest thing to happen in the field since the work of the famous British physicist established the problem in the first place.
Since the 1970s, physicists have been grappling with a logical contradiction in calculations surrounding a black hole called the “ black hole information paradox .”
No comments:
Post a Comment