2024-04-18 02:10:12
Astronomers have noticed that a huge black hole formed after the explosion of a star just 2 thousand light years from Earth. Researchers have discovered that it is the largest black hole in the Milky Way, located in the constellation Aquila.
This was reported by The Guardian.
It had an impact on the star, which attracted the attention of astronomers. The star’s motion indicated that it was being sucked in by a black hole 33 times the mass of the Sun.
“This is a complete surprise. This is the most massive black hole of stellar origin in our galaxy and the second closest ever discovered. Such a discovery happens only once in the life of an explorer,” said Dr. Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer and member of the Gaia mission from the Paris Observatory.
Subsequent observations from the European Southern Observatory telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile confirmed the black hole’s mass and the star’s orbit around it every 11.6 years. Measurements of the companion star show no evidence that it is contaminated by material released from the stellar explosion that created the black hole. This suggests that the black hole formed long before the companion star was captured in its powerful gravitational field.
Stellar black holes form when massive stars collapse at the end of their lives. There are dozens of them in the Milky Way, most of them weighing about 10 times the mass of the Sun. The Milky Way’s most impressive black hole, Sagittarius A, has a total mass of several million suns. It is hidden in the very center of the galaxy and was formed not as a result of the explosion of a star, but as a result of the collapse of giant clouds of dust and gas.
A major report on this black hole is expected to be published in 2025. However, due to the importance of this discovery, the researchers published the data sooner than expected.
Previously, Cursor wrote that astronomers have discovered the largest known black hole, which daily absorbs an amount of gas and dust equivalent to the mass of the Sun. Astronomy experts have determined that the discovered black hole is growing at a rate of about 370 solar masses per year.
2024-04-18 02:10:12