(NLDO) - Signs of a giant black hole have been revealed through unusual stars rushing through the Milky Way galaxy where Earth resides.
A research team led by astrophysicist Jiwon Jesse Han of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has identified signs of an invisible black hole with a mass 600,000 times that of the Sun inside the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way galaxy that contains Earth.
Astronomers have long predicted that this galaxy is hurtling toward us, and in about 2 billion years it will officially collide and merge into the Milky Way.
This means that the "monster" 600,000 times larger than the Sun that CfA scientists have just discovered is also following its galaxy straight towards us.
The Large Magellanic Cloud, home to a mysterious black hole that is shooting super-speeding stars towards us - Photo: NASA
In fact, black holes can be quite difficult to detect, unless they feed so ferociously that they turn themselves into bright quasars.
However, the monster black hole revealed itself through the way it caused some stars to become anomalous.
According to Science Alert, the authors this time studied some reckless stars that are rushing through the halo of our galaxy.
For stars to become hypervelocity stars, they need the “Hills mechanism,” a “kick-starter” created by a three-body interaction between a black hole and two stars. The dance of gravity sends one member of the trio hurtling through space.
Analyzing data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia sky-mapping satellite, researchers identified 21 hypervelocity stars consistent with the Hills mechanism.
All of these stars are B-type, very large and hot, and have relatively short lifespans, which means their high-speed journeys through space must also be relatively short.
They traced the origins of 16 of the stars. Seven originated in the extreme region around the monster black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way. But nine appeared to come from the Large Magellanic Cloud.
To accelerate these nine stars in the way Gaia observed, it would take an object about 600,000 times the mass of the Sun, a monster black hole that we cannot see.
When the two galaxies merge in the future, the black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud — if it exists — will migrate to the galactic center, where it will eventually merge with Sagittarius A* to form one massive monster.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/lo-den-gap-600000-lan-mat-troi-dang-lao-ve-phia-chung-ta-196250215065659058.htm
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