Black holes are perhaps the strangest and most mysterious objects in the known Universe. They had not seen, but scientists believe that they exist. They not only predicted by Einstein, their presence is indirectly confirmed by the impact they have on surrounding space-time. Something about these objects is still known, but more unknown. According to scientists, the understanding of the phenomenon of black holes and in particular of the processes that occur in their centres, will allow us not only to understand but also give us the opportunity to manage themselves the fundamental forces of nature, for example, the same gravity.
Every year scientists report discoveries related to black holes step by step, allowing closer to understand their nature. Today let’s talk about the top ten most recent.
Many black holes of intermediate mass
Among the family of black holes is perhaps the most distinguished of the so-called black holes in the middle (or intermediate) mass. Are black holes whose mass is much greater than the mass of black holes of stellar magnitude (from 10 to several tens of solar masses) but is much smaller than supermassive black holes (millions to hundreds of millions of solar masses). Previously it was assumed that this kind of black holes are much less of the other two specified classes, but a recent discovery has refuted this view.
In 2018, scientists have found a place where the most common such objects. For unknown reasons, while most often black holes of average weight are found in the centers of young galaxies. Once scientists figured this out, a rare kind of black hole ceased to be rare. Moreover, this discovery might help to solve another mystery associated with black holes.
One of the most pressing questions of modern astronomy is the nature of supermassive black holes. Scientists can’t understand how some of the detected supermassive black holes in a relatively compact galaxies grew quickly in size since the Big Bang. Indicate the correct answer can those black holes in the average weight. According to one speculation, supermassive black holes could grow from black holes in the average weight, according to another — they were born originally. But how? The exact answer to give scientists can’t but seem to be moving in the right direction.
Mysterious objects near Sagittarius A*
Sagittarius a* is a supermassive black hole located in the center of our galaxy. In the early 2000s with her, scientists have discovered two mysterious object. They are called objects of the G-class and initially took over the dust cloud. The mystery began after the object approached the black hole. Instead of being torn by the powerful gravity of a supermassive black hole, the objects G1 and G2 were able somehow to survive.
In 2018, scientists found three objects the G-class (G3, G4, G5) near the Sagittarius A*. The analysis of the collected 12 years of data finally, the picture for astronomers not clarified. Objects attract attention for its unusual properties. All five G-objects have the characteristic visual signs of gas clouds, but it behaves as a star with huge mass.
On this basis, scientists have made the assumption that faced with a very rare types of stars, unusual for our galaxy. The appearance of these objects, scientists explain the unique conditions in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole: here, under the powerful gravity can occur in the collapse of binary stars with the formation of a single, large, shrouded in thick dust shells of the object. However, scientists note that not all objects have similar orbits around the black hole, so just to explain the nature of the seen phenomena yet they can’t.
The oldest black hole
The discovery of the oldest black hole is not just a question of age. The discovery of this old man can help us to solve many interesting puzzles related to the epoch when the first stars in the Universe just started to light up.
Scientists discovered in 2017 a black hole ULAS J1342+0928 came to light after a total of about 690 million years after the Big Bang. When the space age was only 5 per cent of the current, the mass of the black hole already at 800 million times the mass of our current Sun.
The facility is located about 13.1 billion light years from Earth and was formed in the early period of the formation of the Universe. This period is often called the era of reionization, when due to the gravitational attraction began to appear the first stars, galaxies, clusters and superclusters of galaxies. A complete picture of reionizatsii still unclear to scientists, therefore, appeared in this period, black holes certainly can be one of the most interesting sources of new information.
As noted above, scientists also can’t understand how in such a short time after the Big Bang, black holes managed to accumulate a huge amount of mass. The objects of this ULAS J1342+0928 can shed some light on this matter, however, to draw any conclusions, it would be nice to find at least a few of these space dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the black hole era of reionizatsii are extremely rare.
The fastest-growing black hole
In 2018, scientists have discovered the “hungry” black hole in the known Universe. Every day, every second she consumes mass equivalent to the mass of our Sun, due to which more and growing rapidly. Fortunately for us, she is very far away. If that monster was in the center of the milky Way, then created x-ray radiation would have sterilized the Earth of all life.
When scientists detected the first light from the quasar J2157-3602 associated with this black hole, its age was estimated at 12 billion years. Once scientists have confirmed that near the quasar is indeed a black hole, its mass has already amounted to about 20 billion solar masses. At the moment, astronomers can’t explain the reason so rapid growth of a black hole.
The only thing known about this object, is the fact that his appetites heat up the surrounding gas and dust to such a state that the brightness can easily replace the light almost all the stars in the sky.
Hidden accumulation
In one galactic cluster can be hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. These clusters are considered by scientists as one of the largest objects in the Universe. I think a whopper is impossible to hide a single object in space? Wrong. One quasar has proved otherwise.
Discovered the site is called PKS1353-341 and was originally meant to be a separate galaxy with an incredibly bright Central region. However, astronomers at mit in 2018, revealed the truth that’s been hiding for several decades since the discovery of this object. It turned out that the object is not a galaxy, but a single quasar (region of hot gas surrounding a supermassive black hole), which is located in the centre of the whole galactic clusters, located 2.4 billion light-years from Earth.
The quasar was so bright that literally eclipsed all the surrounding space, containing hundreds of galaxies. Scientists from MIT have calculated the brightness and it turned out that it is 46 billion times brighter than the Sun. According to researchers, this extreme brightness is associated with the absorption of the Central supermassive black hole a large number of its surrounding material.
Dual system
Another puzzle for the scientists is the so-called double, i.e. twin black holes, wrapped around each other. The cases of collisions of black holes scientists have noted in the past. Two were identified in 2015 and another in 2017. surprisingly, thanks to recent scientists have become the direct witnesses not less rare phenomena.
In the received signal of the collision of two black holes, there were signs of gravitational ripples of space-time variations of the gravitational field that propagate like waves. Both black holes when it was not destroyed, but instead merged into a single entity – a supermassive black hole, the size even more than her grandparents.
About the nature of the emergence of dual systems of black holes scientists have two assumptions. According to one, double black holes appear when the death of double stars. According to the second – black holes are formed independently from each other, and after drifting in space are attracted to each other under the action of gravitational forces.
Deadly bubble
In 2018 physics suggested another scenario of the Apocalypse: the Earth can be destroyed via black holes. A year earlier, the scientific world celebrated the confirmation of the discovery of gravitational waves – a phenomenon of tensile and compressive fabric of reality. This power is deadly.
In the new theory, scientists from Princeton University predicted one scenario of what might happen if high-energy cosmic cataclysms (e.g. the merger of two black holes or two neutron stars) introduced gravitational waves collide.
Gravitational waves to illustrate the example is often compared to the ripples that arise, if you throw a stone. However, if a particle or object moves with the speed of light, can appear flat gravitational waves. According to scientists, if the waves are large enough, then their impact could create a giant black hole that will change time and space in the vast area of outer space.
If this happens close to Earth, not only all living beings but also the planet itself and the Solar system will come to an end.
Black hole-an outcast
Scientists have repeatedly wondered about the possibility of “outlier” galaxies, their Central black holes. But for a long time evidence of this phenomenon astronomers could not detect. But in 2017, the galaxy 3C186 gave the researchers the space a real surprise.
According to scientists, early galaxy 3C186 were two separate galaxies that, at some period of its history merged into one. New galaxy acquired quite a clear shape and form, instead of the intended chaotic structure, but the main surprise came from its center: scientists, full of hope to find in it a supermassive black hole, nothing found.
Later, the black hole still showed up, only 35,000 light-years from the galactic center 3C186. When there was a collision of two star clusters collided and their Central galactic black holes, which ultimately led to the emergence of a supermassive black hole. This event is likely to have created a very powerful gravitational waves, which this newly formed black hole and pushed out of the galaxy, the scientists explain.
To do this, however, was not so easy, continue researchers. To eject the black hole from the galactic centre, it took the energy equivalent to the explosion of 100 million supernovae. Scientists still have not figured out what happened there really, but it becomes clear that there are forces, able to withstand even the relics themselves are black holes.
Interestingly, the black hole, the outcast continued to move to the borders of their galaxy. At the current rate it will be completely thrown out beyond about 20 million years.
Reverse time
Black holes are formed when there is gravitational collapse (compression) of a sufficiently massive star, or the collapse of the Central part of the galaxy or protogalactical gas. At this point in space emitted a huge amount of gamma radiation. The latter in turn represents the brightest electromagnetic events in the Universe and still not fully understood by scientists.
In 2018, caught the signals of gamma radiation was discovered very strange characteristics that, according to researchers from NASA, can be interpreted as “reverse time.” Usually at every event gamma-ray emission is the radiation of waves with a particular signature, which is never repeated. Discovered in the signals contained anomalies that turned out to be impossible to explain from the position of any theoretical model. These signals represented the special wavy structure, which was rotated in time as if their beginning was in the end of the outbreak, and the end — in the first moments of release.
For some physicists, such observations were enough to claim evidence of reverse time. According to another and probably more realistic explanation, the beams of gamma-ray emission in its path could encounter a certain matter, giving the signature waves, which was adopted by scholars in reverse time. It is possible that the rays hit about a cluster of matter which affected them as a reflective surface. However, do not exclude the possibility that we are talking about an entirely new law of physics, the first example of which were scientists in 2018.
The ghosts of dead universes
In August of this year, a British physicist at Oxford University, Roger Penrose made a very loud statement. He and his team argue that before the appearance of our Universe, that is, before the Big Bang there was another universe. To such conclusion scientists led a number of light observed anomalies in the microwave background radiation, which, according to Penrose, are the light of the spiral, remaining from black holes, which belonged to the previous universe that existed before the Big Bang.
In one of his theories even more famous British physicist Stephen Hawking suggested that black holes, after you lose the bulk of their particles, disappear. These hypothetical particles are called gravitons. They have no mass, electric charge and other, but they have energy and therefore participate in the gravitational interaction.
When one universe dies and a new, those gravitons, according to Penrose, become part of the new universe. The scientist and his colleagues are convinced that have found these surviving remnants in the microwave background radiation. They called the detected light anomalies “points of Stephen Hawking”. If the observations of scientists are confirmed, we are waiting for serious editing of the Big Bang theory.
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10 amazing new discoveries related to black holes
Nikolai Khizhnyak