A Black Hole Roams Freely Around The Galaxy Scientists Say

When the big stars collapse, they are believed to leave black holes behind. If that were the case, there would have to be hundreds of millions scattered across our galaxy, left behind after the death of these stars. But scientists have tried to find them. Individual black holes are invisible. Now, researchers believe they have identified such a “free” black hole, which flies through the galaxy at 100,000 miles per hour. It was detected using a gravitational lens, where scientists monitor for the distortion of light caused by the gravity of an object. The object is in our galaxy, but it is still thousands of light years away from us. However, the finding suggests that, statistically, the closest such object to us should be less than 80 light-years away. It is somewhere between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of our Sun, according to a group of scientists. Another, using the same data, believes it is closer to 7.1 solar masses. Smaller estimates mean that the object could turn out to be a neutron star and not a black hole. But by the last, bigger calculations, it would definitely be a black hole. Whatever it is, the object is the first such “ghost” – the dark, dense remnants of a dead star – that has ever been seen wandering in our galaxy without coupling to another star. “This is the first free-floating black hole or neutron star to be discovered with a gravitational microscope,” said Jesica Lu of UC Berkeley, one of the leaders in one of the studies. “With microfiches, we are able to explore these solitary, compact objects and weigh them. “I think we have opened a new window on these dark objects, which do not look different.” Separate research by two competing teams means that the research is described in two papers: one, by the UC Berkeley team that it believes is smaller, is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, while the other higher estimate by the Space Telescope Science Institute is described in The Astrophysical Journal. In addition to estimating different masses, groups disagree about how far the object is likely to be. The UC Berkeley team believes it is between 2,280 and 6,260 light-years away, while the STSci team believes it is about 5,153 light-years away. It also means that the object has received two distinct names: MOA-2011-BLG-191 and OGLE-2011-BLG-0462, or OB110462, for short.

title: “A Black Hole Roams Freely Around The Galaxy Scientists Say " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-20” author: “Juan Prescott”

When the big stars collapse, they are believed to leave black holes behind. If that were the case, there would have to be hundreds of millions scattered across our galaxy, left behind after the death of these stars. But scientists have tried to find them. Individual black holes are invisible. Now, researchers believe they have identified such a “free” black hole, which flies through the galaxy at 100,000 miles per hour. It was detected using a gravitational lens, where scientists monitor for the distortion of light caused by the gravity of an object. The object is in our galaxy, but it is still thousands of light years away from us. However, the finding suggests that, statistically, the closest such object to us should be less than 80 light-years away. It is somewhere between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of our Sun, according to a group of scientists. Another, using the same data, believes it is closer to 7.1 solar masses. Smaller estimates mean that the object could turn out to be a neutron star and not a black hole. But by the last, bigger calculations, it would definitely be a black hole. Whatever it is, the object is the first such “ghost” – the dark, dense remnants of a dead star – that has ever been seen wandering in our galaxy without coupling to another star. “This is the first free-floating black hole or neutron star to be discovered with a gravitational microscope,” said Jesica Lu of UC Berkeley, one of the leaders in one of the studies. “With microfiches, we are able to explore these solitary, compact objects and weigh them. “I think we have opened a new window on these dark objects, which do not look different.” Separate research by two competing teams means that the research is described in two papers: one, by the UC Berkeley team that it believes is smaller, is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, while the other higher estimate by the Space Telescope Science Institute is described in The Astrophysical Journal. In addition to estimating different masses, groups disagree about how far the object is likely to be. The UC Berkeley team believes it is between 2,280 and 6,260 light-years away, while the STSci team believes it is about 5,153 light-years away. It also means that the object has received two distinct names: MOA-2011-BLG-191 and OGLE-2011-BLG-0462, or OB110462, for short.