They found the first “triple black hole”
Historical discovery in the world of astronomy. For the first time in history, a group of experts discovered existence of a “triple black hole”. Discovery published in the journal Natureconducted by physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
This system consists of a central black hole, which engulfs a small star that is spiraling very close to this one. It does this every 6.5 days, similar to how most binary systems do it, but with one twist: a second star that also appears to be orbiting a black holebut at a greater distance.
According to physicists, This star orbits the black hole every 70,000 years.. Being so far away, experts raise several questions about its origins. It is believed that black holes are born from violent explosion of a dying starwhat is known as a supernova. In this process a large amount of energy and light is released before collapsing and becoming an invisible black hole.
Softer collapse, origin
But a recent discovery suggests that if the black hole resulted from a typical supernova, The energy released during the explosion would have repelled any object in its surroundings.. Thus, the second star, the external one, should not be there. Therefore, experts believe that treated for milder “direct collapse”.
So, if it really came about like this, no object will be disturbed. For experts, this triple system may be the first evidence of the existence the black hole was formed as a result of a milder process. “We believe that most black holes are formed from violent star explosionsbut this discovery helps cast doubt on that,” says study author Kevin Burgde.
The most curious thing about this discovery is that they weren’t even looking for it when they found it. Experts consulted with repository of astronomical observationscollected from telescopes around the world and from space. With this tool you can access searching for images of the same part of the sky. Turning to the Gaia satellite, which has been monitoring the movement of all the stars in the galaxy since 2014, they saw how a group of stars moved in unison.
“Almost certainly This is not a coincidence or an accident.. We see two stars following each other because they are connected by a weak gravitational rope. That’s why, It must be a triple system.“Burge explains in an MIT statement.
The outer star, in turn, served experts for know the age of that particular system. The star, which physicists say is in the process of becoming red giant, phase occurring at the last moment of a star’s life. Thus, experts conclude that this star is about 4 billion years old – the same age as the trio of black holes.
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