COSMIC HAYSTACK
New black hole discovered by scientists behind star cluster – they say it’s the ‘missing link’ in understanding universe
Watch Nasa's video of what it would be like to fall into a black hole
A NEW black hole has been discovered behind Omega Centauri, a collection of 10 million stars, that could be the closest one to Earth.
Despite harbouring the mass of thousands of Suns, detecting black holes can be like finding a needle in a cosmic haystack.
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“There are black holes a little heavier than our sun that are like ants or spiders — they’re hard to spot, but kind of everywhere throughout the universe," explained Matthew Whittaker, an undergraduate student at the University of Utah and co-author of the study.
"Then you've got supermassive black holes that are like Godzilla in the centers of galaxies tearing things up, and we can see them easily,”
“Then these intermediate-mass black holes are kind of on the level of Bigfoot.
"Spotting them is like finding the first evidence for Bigfoot—people are going to freak out.”
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Omega Centauri contains a black hole at its centre, with the mass of at least 8,200 time that of our Sun, that has evaded scientists until now.
Astronomers reckon the black hole is the missing link between how a stellar black hole turns into a supermassive black hole.
It is currently in the middle stage of its evolution, and is considerably less massive than typical black holes that lie in the centre of galaxies like Omega Centauri.
Anil Seth, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Utah and co-principal investigator (PI) of the study, called it "a once-in-a-career kind of finding".
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"I’ve been excited about it for nine straight months," he added. "Every time I think about it, I have a hard time sleeping."
Seth continued: “I think that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This is really, truly extraordinary evidence.”
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Two decades worth of images
The international team of astronomers used more than 500 images from two decades worth of observations that were captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope.
In these images, scientists spotted seven fast-moving stars near the centre of Omega Centauri, that appear as though they are being tugged by a black hole.
The only object that can be so massive is a black hole, with a mass at least 8,200 times that of our Sun
Maximilian Häberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
"We discovered seven stars that should not be there," Maximilian Häberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, who led the investigation, explained.
"They are moving so fast that they would escape the cluster and never come back.
"The most likely explanation is that a very massive object is gravitationally pulling on these stars and keeping them close to the center.
"The only object that can be so massive is a black hole, with a mass at least 8,200 times that of our Sun."
Can you see it?
The new black hole could be the closest one to Earth - but we don't need to worry.
It's still about 17,700 light-years away from Earth.
It is, however, much closer than what scientists previously thought was our closest black hole at 26,000 light-years away, which is a 4.3-million-solar-mass in the center of the Milky Way.
But can you see it?
Omega Centauri is visible from Earth with the naked eye, and is a fan favourite among stargazers in the southern hemisphere.
The cluster can appear almost as large as the full Moon when seen from very dark, very rural areas.
That being said, it looks no different from other so-called globular clusters - and you won't be able to see the black hole roaring at its centre.
Seth has now got the green light to use the James Webb Space Telescope for further investigation.
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The $10billion James Webb Space Telescope, dubbed the most powerful telescope ever built, is the successor to Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope.
The long-term goal is to determine how the stars accelerate: how their orbits curve. Following those stars once around their whole orbit, as in the Nobel-prize-winning observations near the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, is a project for future generations of astronomers, though.
What is a black hole? The key facts
Here's what you need to know...
- A black hole is a region of space where absolutely nothing can escape
- That’s because they have extremely strong gravitational effects, which means once something goes into a black hole, it can’t come back out
- They get their name because even light can’t escape once it’s been sucked in – which is why a black hole is completely dark
What is an event horizon?
- There has to be a point at which you’re so close to a black hole you can’t escape
- Otherwise, literally everything in the universe would have been sucked into one
- The point at which you can no longer escape from a black hole’s gravitational pull is called the event horizon
- The event horizon varies between different black holes, depending on their mass and size
What is a singularity?
- The gravitational singularity is the very centre of a black hole
- It’s a one-dimensional point that contains an incredibly large mass in an infinitely small space
- At the singularity, space-time curves infinitely, and the gravitational pull is infinitely strong
- Conventional laws of physics stop applying at this point
How are black holes created?
- Most black holes are made when a supergiant star dies
- This happens when stars run out of fuel – like hydrogen – to burn, causing the star to collapse
- When this happens, gravity pulls the center of the star inwards quickly and collapses into a tiny ball
- It expands and contracts until one final collapse, causing part of the star to collapse inward thanks to gravity, and the rest of the star to explode outwards
- The remaining central ball is extremely dense, and if it’s especially dense, you get a black hole
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