Massive black hole enters the record books (Messier 33)

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 10/17/07 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers have found the biggest stellar black hole so far, a monster with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun, lurking in a nearby spiral-shaped galaxy.

The find, located in a galaxy called Messier 33, has an even bigger companion -- a close-orbiting star that is 70 times the mass of the Sun, according to an investigation led by Jerome Orosz of San Diego University, California.

Black holes are among the most powerful forces in the Universe. They are believed to be concentrated fields of gravity which are so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape them.

Stellar black holes derive from the collapse of stars, but typically range from about three to 14 or 15 solar masses.

Another category of black holes are "supermassive" holes, spotted at the centre of galaxies, that have masses millions, even billions, times that of the Sun.

The paper appears on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal.

The Orosz team were able to make their calculations with unusual accuracy -- the estimate is plus or minus 1.45 solar masses -- because the Messier 33 phenomenon is a so-called "eclipsing binary."

This means that the companion star passes directly in front of the black hole in its 3.45-day orbit, blocking out X-ray emissions from the hole.

The regular fall and then rise in the X-ray signal provides the key indicator for calculating the "weight" of the hole.

[NormsRevenge]

This Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics handout image received in June 2006 shows the Messier 33 galaxy. Astronomers have found the biggest stellar black hole so far, a monster with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun, lurking in a the nearby spiral-shaped galaxy Messier 33.(AFP/HO/File)

[BOBTHENAILER]

AND IT'S NAME IS HILLARY

[Terpfen]

I’ve always wondered, what happens when two black holes try to eat each other?

[IslandJeff]

If it’s a Messier galaxy, how close is it? The masses and distances are staggering.

/Rare Earther Republican

[BOBTHENAILER]

I’ve always wondered, what happens when two black holes try to eat each other?

Ever seen Hillary around Helen Thomas?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I’ve always wondered, what happens when two black holes try to eat each other?

One wins?

[NormsRevenge]

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/010711a.html

It’s considered a ‘merger’.

[NormsRevenge]

Ask an Astrophysicist at Nasa

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/black_holes.html

[ari-freedom]

Rudy vs Hillary?

[doc1019]

Should I start worrying or do I have a day or so. ;-)

[Jorge]

If it’s a Messier galaxy, how close is it? The masses and distances are staggering.

Whatever the hell it is. I hope stays far away from us.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Massive black hole enters the record books (Messier 33) AFP on Yahoo ^ | 10/17/07 | AFP
...
Astronomers have found the biggest stellar black hole so far, a monster with a mass 15.65 times that of our Sun, lurking in a nearby spiral-shaped galaxy.
...
Another category of black holes are "supermassive" holes, spotted at the centre of galaxies, that have masses millions, even billions, times that of the Sun.

I'm confused. What's the big deal?

[ConservatismNow]

Yes but what does this have to do with illegal immigration?

[Renderofveils]

I'm confused. What's the big deal?

Global warming increases the chance of enlarging the tiny black hole that we've got living in the Bermuda Triangle.

Or at least, that's what Algore told me.

[P.O.E.]

"An international team of astronomers has found that hot winds from giant black holes in galactic centers may blow heavy elements like carbon and oxygen into the vast tracts of space between galaxies."

Black Holes May Fill The Universe With Seeds Of Life

[IslandJeff]

Honestly, what I can’t figure out about The Big Bang is how gravitational fields can contravene the original expansion (think of the ripple when you throw a rock into a pond), and its original ballistic energy thereof.

I’m also an ignorant layman accountant. YMMV.

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[LdSentinal]

I think this is the biggest "stellar" black hole, meaning caused by the death of a star.

Nobody knows how those supermassive holes formed.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"Massive black hole enters the record books"

[humint]

This means that the companion star passes directly in front of the black hole in its 3.45-day orbit, blocking out X-ray emissions from the hole.

God post. X-rays do not emit from the hole...

If a black hole passes through a cloud of interstellar matter, or is close to another "normal" star, the black hole can accrete matter into itself. As the matter falls or is pulled towards the black hole, it gains kinetic energy, heats up and is squeezed by tidal forces. The heating ionizes the atoms, and when the atoms reach a few million degrees Kelvin, they emit X-rays. The X-rays are sent off into space before the matter crosses the Schwarzschild radius and crashes into the singularity. Thus we can see this X-ray emission.