Posted on 01/12/2005 9:07:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN DIEGO -- A new study reveals that the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is loaded with black holes, as astronomers have expected in recent years.
The galactic center is dominated by one supermassive black hole. It packs a mass equal to about 3 million Suns. Around it, scientists have expected to find a high concentration of stellar black holes, the sort that result from the collapse of massive stars. Each can be a few to many times the mass of the Sun.
Observations have hinted at the existence of many stellar black holes near the galactic center. But nosing around there is hard, because the region is shrouded in dust. Visible light doesn't escape the region.
The ongoing study, led by UCLA postdoctoral fellow Michael Muno, is searching the inner 75-light-years of the galaxy with the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. X-rays conveniently pierce interstellar dust.
Muno and his colleagues have found strong evidence for seven black holes (they could be neutron stars, which are also very dense). Importantly, four of the objects were concentrated in the inner 3 light-years of space around the supermassive black hole.
"The observed high concentration of these sources implies that a huge number of black holes and neutron stars have gathered in the center of the galaxy," Muno said.
Extrapolating to the whole sky, the finding suggest a swarm of 10,000 black holes and neutron stars orbit near the galaxy's middle.
A theory by UCLA's Mark Morris, co-researcher on the new project, predicted the concentration back in 1993. Dense objects like black holes interact gravitationally with less dense stars. The lighter stars tend to get jettisoned outward, Morris figured, while the black holes slow down on their orbital trek around the galactic center, and they sink inward.
The black holes can't be seen directly. Those that are detected have likely taken a companion, a normal star that they devour gradually, the theorists figure. The extended feast also involves a release of X-rays as gas from the normal star is superheated until it glows before plunging beyond the point of no return.
The findings were reported here at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. More research is needed to confirm the conclusions, the scientists said.
Four bright, variable X-ray sources (circles) were discovered within 3 light years of Sgr A* (the bright source just above Source C). The lower panel illustrates the strong variability of one of these sources. This variability, which is present in all the sources, is indicative of an X-ray binary system where a black hole or neutron star is pulling matter from a nearby companion star. Credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/M.Muno et al.
Oh my God----I just had one and it was delicious.
but are there any black pimps for those holes?
No, you don't eat em! Now you're gonna weigh as much as a million suns. Better start running that off.
Is this the Fault of Bush?
I thought Snickers had the holes ... or was that the nuts?
As George V. Higgins wrote, it's darker than a trunk full of a-holes...
10,000????
Cool article.
"center of our Milky Way Galaxy is loaded with black holes... galactic center is dominated by one supermassive black hole."
Hey, do they have any idea what happens when one black hole falls into another?
oh, almost forgot...
SEMPER FI DEVIL DOG!
:)
// sorry Geron, that was for Norm
oh, almost forgot...
SEMPER FI DEVIL DOG!
:)
I thought they were full of Caramel and Nougat.
BTTT
Would anyone here like to discuss the formation of the earth-moon system? The story ain't over yet...
bump
Hmmm...
That pic could be a very negative message for mankind from God...
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Readable and authoritative guide to stellar evolution, February 15, 2001
| Reviewer: | Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews |
This book was different. I learned a lot about star formation and particularly about the meaning of the ubiquitous Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The diagram is obligatory in a discussion of any astronomy other than planetary, but it tends to be described rather than explained. Here Kipenhahn goes through the life of stars of various sizes, showing their evolution along the H-R diagram and why the "main sequence" is so thickly populated (simply, because that's when the stars are burning hydrogen, which is what they do most but not all of the time).
Once done with the basics, he goes on to cover binary stars, neutron stars, and other stellar oddities. He also devotes a chapter to planetary formation and the possibility of life on other planets. Three brief but valuable appendices cover the measurement of stellar velocities, distances, and masses.
This book is a treasure and an authoritative work on the topic. Highly recommended.
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I am in my sixth week of sugar detox and had to click on this thread just to stare at what I was hoping was a low sugar Milky Way, dark Chocolate.
And I have an allergy to sugar substitutes so can't go there.
More Water please. Uhg.
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