Researchers discovered a black hole with the help of the “Hubble” space telescope. Its mass suggests that it could be an intermediate black hole.
- In addition to supermassive and stellar black holes, researchers suspect the existence of intermediate black holes
- With the help of the “Hubble” space telescope, researchers have now discovered a promising candidate
- Will the newly discovered black hole answer important questions for researchers?
Black holes are among the most exciting objects in space . They are divided into several categories, most of the black holes that we know fall into one of these two:
- Super-massive black holes are positioned in the center of a galaxy. They have a mass of one million to ten billion solar masses. An example of a supermassive black hole is Sagittarius A * in the center of the Milky Way *.
- Stellar black holes were created by the collapse of massive stars. They have a maximum of 50 solar masses.
Intermediary black hole discovered: is it the "missing link"?
For some time now, researchers have suspected that there could be another type of black hole between the supermassive black holes and the stellar black holes : intermediary black holes with a hundred to 100,000 solar masses, the so-called “missing link” between the other two categories.
The problem, however, is that these intermediate black holes are difficult to find. They are smaller and less active than high-mass black holes *. Their attraction is not strong enough to permanently attract stars and other materials. The x-ray radiation that stars emit when torn apart by a black hole is the clue that researchers are looking for when looking for black holes. In the case of intermediate black holes, researchers must also be very lucky: they have to "catch in the act" - in the process of how it attracts and devours a star. Only then can they “see” the black hole - or the X-ray radiation from the star.
Cosmic detective work: @NASAHubble astronomers find the best evidence yet of an elusive mid-sized black hole. The object gave away its existence by tearing apart a star that passed too close. More: https://t.co/qCzTGwUaTa pic.twitter.com/bCP0qWm5a3
- NASA (@NASA) March 31, 2020Black hole had already been noticed by X-rays in 2006
In order to find evidence of such a possible intermediate black hole , Dacheng Lin (University of New Hampshire) and a team of researchers have searched the archives of the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. They came across an X-ray source with the complicated name 3XMM J215022.4−055108, which had already been noticed by the XMM Newtonian and Chandra X-ray telescopes in 2006. At that time, the telescopes had discovered strong X-rays , but it was unclear exactly where they came from and whether it was possibly a neutron star.
The team reopened the case and also consulted the Hubble space telescope . The scientists found that the X-ray source is not in the center of a galaxy. Because massive black holes are actually located in the center of the galaxy, the hope grew that it could be an intermediate black hole . "Hubble" showed that the X-rays do not come from our galaxy - but from a distant, dense cluster of stars on the outer edge of another galaxy . In precisely these regions, the researchers expected to find an intermediate black hole.
"Intermediate black holes are very elusive objects," Lin explains in a message. “That's why it was so important to exclude other explanations. "Hubble" made it possible for us. "
Newly discovered black hole has just the right mass
The newly discovered black hole must have more than 50,000 times the mass of the sun, the researchers say - it is precisely in the area in which intermediate black holes are suspected. The X-ray source J215022.4−055108 is the most promising candidate for an intermediate black hole. "The fact that this black hole tears a star * is strong evidence that it cannot be just a stellar black hole," explains Lin. Stellar black holes would not give off so much radiation and energy.
His teammate Natalie Webb (Université de Toulouse) adds: "Researching the origin and development of intermediate black holes could finally give us the answer to the question of how super-massive black holes formed in the center of galaxies." The researchers hope for Future, among other things, answers to the question of whether intermediate black holes grow and become super-massive black holes. The question of the formation of intermediate black holes is still open.
The specialist thesis was published in the specialist journal "Astrophysical Journal Letter" (doi: 10.3847 / 2041-8213 / ab745b)
By Tanja Banner
* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital central editorial office.
List of rubric lists: © ESA / Hubble, M. Kornmesser
