A Big Black Hole Floats By
Explanation:
A black hole glides silently through space.
Is there any way to know it's there?
Until last week, all objects that might be
black holes in
our Galaxy were part of
binary star systems.
There, gas from the companion star was hypothesized to
swirl around the black hole,
heat up, and emit
X-rays before falling in.
Last week, however, analysis was
released of a mysteriously dark object
that floated in front of a distant background star,
dramatically increasing this star's light by the
lens effect of its gravity, as
pictured above.
The high mass and low light of this
strange lens
have astronomers guessing they might just have
detected a lone
black hole,
weighing in at six times the mass of our Sun.
The existence of isolated black holes
is not in itself surprising,
as they should be the
end result of the cores of massive stars.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
