The black hole, one of the most mysterious and dangerous objects in the universe, once again has an incredible discovery thanks to scientists who are trying to discover as much as possible about them.
In 2003, an event in which a black hole devoured a star was observed from Earth, and scientists then analyzed the images with the technologies and theories available, but now they have done it again.
The black hole that was observed devouring a star is located in a galaxy that is 740 million light-years away from Earth, and it is an intermediate one, that is, between those the size of some stars and the supermassive ones.
The star devoured by an intermediate black hole
When that black hole devoured the star, it generated an event that is known as one that throws strong waves into the universe, and that's how it was detected, with the help of telescopes for observing X-rays in the universe.
The black hole had, thanks to this event, the measurement of both its mass and the speed of rotation, scientists then discovering for the first time how fast black holes rotate, but also that the intermediate ones are very difficult to observe.
"The fact that we were able to catch this black hole as it devours a star provides a remarkable opportunity to observe what would otherwise be invisible," said Ann Zabludoff, UArizona professor of astronomy and co-author of the paper. Not only that, by analyzing the flare we were able to better understand this elusive category of black holes, which could very well represent the majority of black holes in the center of galaxies. X-ray emissions from the inner disk of the dead star's debris made it possible for us to infer the mass and spin of this black hole and classify it as an intermediate black hole.”
The only reason why that black hole was observed is based on the fact that when it started devouring the star, it threw jets of gas and light into the universe, including X-rays, and that's how it was possible to detect it from a distance.
Intermediate black holes are impossible to observe when they are inactive
The black hole observed in this process was the first for which such advanced details were observed regarding the process through which such an object in the universe goes.
The data recorded then could not be properly analyzed by scientists, and based on the technological advances made in the last almost two decades, scientists managed to better explain what happens with such an event regarding a black hole.
The black hole will continue to remain a mysterious and hard-to-observe object, which also hides a lot of mysteries from humanity, but slowly, slowly, some of them are beginning to be revealed.
