<
https://news.mit.edu/2024/physicists-discover-first-black-hole-triple-1023>
"Many black holes detected to date appear to be part of a pair. These binary
systems comprise a black hole and a secondary object — such as a star, a much
denser neutron star, or another black hole — that spiral around each other,
drawn together by the black hole’s gravity to form a tight orbital pair.
Now a surprising discovery is expanding the picture of black holes, the objects
they can host, and the way they form.
In a study appearing today in
Nature, physicists at MIT and Caltech report
that they have observed a “black hole triple” for the first time. The new
system holds a central black hole in the act of consuming a small star that’s
spiraling in very close to the black hole, every 6.5 days — a configuration
similar to most binary systems. But surprisingly, a second star appears to also
be circling the black hole, though at a much greater distance. The physicists
estimate this far-off companion is orbiting the black hole every 70,000 years.
That the black hole seems to have a gravitational hold on an object so far away
is raising questions about the origins of the black hole itself. Black holes
are thought to form from the violent explosion of a dying star — a process
known as a supernova, by which a star releases a huge amount of energy and
light in a final burst before collapsing into an invisible black hole.
The team’s discovery, however, suggests that if the newly-observed black hole
resulted from a typical supernova, the energy it would have released before it
collapsed would have kicked away any loosely bound objects in its outskirts.
The second, outer star, then, shouldn’t still be hanging around.
Instead, the team suspects the black hole formed through a more gentle process
of “direct collapse,” in which a star simply caves in on itself, forming a
black hole without a last dramatic flash. Such a gentle origin would hardly
disturb any loosely bound, faraway objects.
Because the new triple system includes a very far-off star, this suggests the
system’s black hole was born through a gentler, direct collapse. And while
astronomers have observed more violent supernovae for centuries, the team says
the new triple system could be the first evidence of a black hole that formed
from this more gentle process."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/276-regenerative-city/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
