Several 'Echoing' Black Holes Have Just Been Discovered in The Milky Way

  • 📰 ScienceAlert
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 50 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 23%
  • Publisher: 68%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

Echoes of light bouncing off thick clouds of material around active black holes are helping astronomers better understand the wacky space-time in the immediate vicinity of these extreme objects.

. That's because, unless they're active, they don't emit any radiation we can detect. They're effectively invisible.

The material forms an accretion disk of dust and gas swirling around the black hole and falling into it, a lot like water circling and sliding down a drain. The insane frictional and gravitational interactions involved generate intense heat and light, causing the region around the black hole to glow.In rare black holes, we can also see a fascinating phenomenon at work.

Although rare, these echoes can tell us a lot about the environment around a black hole. The light can be analyzed, from both the initial outburst and the echo, to measure the space between the black hole and the dust, much like a bat uses echolocation to navigate its surroundings. First, the black hole starts off in a"hard" state, generating a corona and emitting high-speed jets of plasma from the regions over its poles. When these processes are dominating the black hole's energy profile, the time intervals between the X-ray bursts and their echoes are short, on the scale of milliseconds.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 63. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

This is it! On May 12th we'll see the Event Horizon Telescope's Image of the Milky Way's Supermassive Black HoleThe Event Horizon Telescope Consortium has some big news about the center of our galaxy, and will be announcing at the ESO's headquarters on May 12th! storybywill Omg omg omg omg 😲
Source: universetoday - 🏆 297. / 63 Read more »

How to improve your moodDiscover how to improve your mood with these ways of lifting your spirits
Source: LiveScience - 🏆 538. / 51 Read more »

Amazon's gargantuan Echo Show 15 smart display is discounted for the first timeJust in time for Mother's Day, Amazon is selling several of its smart displays, jumbo-sized Echo Show 15 included, at substantial discounts.
Source: PhoneArena - 🏆 322. / 59 Read more »

Tips flood in to WDFW as search continues for collared bear in IssaquahWildlife experts are fielding dozens of calls about a big black bear that has grown several sizes too large for its research collar and is now in need of help. FOX13 FBISeattle get SA Linwood E. Smith III’s stoopid a$$ in his godDam g[rave] he’s scaring the living daylights out of children with his travels, that poor collar just screaming to end it all while the bear has a communication problem. The poor bear didn’t ask for the poor collar. So exactly what does the collar do? If you can’t even track it? Seem irresponsible asf. Someone should definitely get charge for animal cruelty.
Source: fox13seattle - 🏆 328. / 59 Read more »

Black HolesIt’s BlackHoleWeek! These cosmic mysteries are so strong, not even our timelines can escape them. Get lost in the latest black hole content this week by following NASAUniverse. We can’t promise you will ever get out... Universe Waste of money Universe Beautiful image! Universe I thought we had to wait 2 more weeks before the pic of Sagittarius A was released?
Source: NASA - 🏆 672. / 51 Read more »

The Most Swoon-Worthy Met Gala After Party Looks Of All TimeCue Kanye West VMAs echo, 'Of all time!'
Source: StyleCaster - 🏆 104. / 63 Read more »