The sound of a black hole echo. This video shows a typical X-ray echo, accompanied by sounds converted from the emissions and turned to audible sound waves. Credit: Sound computed by Kyle Keane and Erin Kara, MIT. Animation computed by Michal Dovciak, ASU CAS.At one time, these echoing systems were thought to be pretty rare. There are tens of millions of black holes in the Milky Way Galaxy. However, astronomers knew of only two black hole echo producers.
These X-ray flashes give astronomers a good look at the objects in the binaries. “The black holes range in mass from five to 15 times the mass of the Sun,” said MIT graduate student Jingyi Wang. He also noted that these binary systems all contain normal, low-mass stars like the Sun.Astrophysical Journal
says these light echoes give important new information not just about the nearby environment, but about processes at the black holes themselves. “Now we’ve shown these echoes are commonly observed, and we’re able to probe connections between a black hole’s disk, jet, and corona in a new way,” she said in aThe x-ray binary black hole echoes apparently come from action in the corona around the black hole.
“The role of black holes in galaxy evolution is an outstanding question in modern astrophysics,”said Kara. “Interestingly, these black hole binaries appear to be ‘mini’ supermassive black holes, and so by understanding the outbursts in these small, nearby systems, we can understand how similar outbursts in supermassive black holes affect the galaxies in which they reside.”
The research on these x-ray binary black hole echoes was supported in part by NASA. The research team includes Erin Kara, Jingyi Wang, Matteo Lucchini, Ron Remillard and collaborators at Caltech and other institutions.
BPSGroup Echo 1 'Helloo helloo? Is anyone out there?' :)
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