Scientists see for the first time how a supernova produces a black hole Sciences

Door Robbert van der Linde

10 jan 2024 om 17:16 Update: 2 uur geleden

For the first time, astronomers have actually seen how black holes form when massive stars explode. Scientists have suspected for some time that black holes form in this way, but they have not yet seen it happen.

When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they collapse under their own gravity. Sometimes this happens so quickly that a huge explosion follows. We call such an explosion a supernova.

The theory is that after the explosion, only the star's core remains as a small but super-massive dot in space. If the star is large enough, it could evolve into a black hole. They have such a strong attraction that even light cannot escape from them.

With the help of the telescope called the Very Large Telescope from the observatory Eso Scientists were able to see traces of the supernova. The supernova is located only 75 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers saw how a massive object formed after the explosion.

This discovery was described in the latest issue of the scientific journal nature. In addition, the results were presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.

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A black hole was “detected” by the second star

The black hole itself cannot be seen because it does not allow light to escape. But the presence of a second star indicates the existence of the black hole. Scientists can see how the star's dust is “engulfed”, causing changes in its brightness.

So-called double stars are more common, but it is rare for one star to survive the explosion of the other. The second star and the rest of the first star may now be orbiting each other. Eventually, the black hole will swallow the second star entirely.

Scientists believe that most galaxies revolve around a black hole. For example, the Milky Way galaxy, which contains the solar system along with Earth, orbits the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.

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This is how big a black hole can get

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