NASA has announced that it has spotted a “supermassive” black hole with the particularity of leaving behind stars.
” An invisible monster on the run This is how NASA’s new discovery is described, shared in a press release published on April 6. Where we can read that the Hubble Space Telescope accidentally captured a black hole all at once “ supermassive ” And ” supersonic “. Despite its size equivalent to twenty times that of the Sun, it does not seem hungry. ” This black hole is too fast to take the time to eat “, notes NASA.
If not greedy, this black hole has the particularity of leaving behind star formations – a phenomenon never seen before, specifies the space agency. According to the first conclusions, it would be the fruit of a game of galactic billiards between three massive black holes.
A black hole capable of rallying the Earth and the Moon in 14 minutes
” We think we are seeing a wake behind the black hole, where the gas cools and can create stars. So, we observe the formation of stars behind the black hole “, emphasizes Pieter van Dokkum, officiating at Yale University in New Haven. He says the discovery was made completely by chance while he was searching for star clusters in a nearby dwarf galaxy. He first thought of a ” cosmic ray hitting the camera detector before opting for the presence of a black hole with unprecedented characteristics.
This black hole is so fast that it could reach the Earth and the Moon in less than 14 minutes. Nevertheless, there is no reason to be worried: this ” freak is very, very far. NASA uses an expression to explain his birth — “ two’s company, three’s a crowd ” (either ” At two, we have fun, at three, we get bored “). She believes that the first two black holes, linked to two galaxies dating back 50 million years, first collided before a third invited itself to the party to sow discord within the couple.
This celestial object will obviously be studied in the coming days to unravel the mysteries surrounding it. The formation of stars in its wake, for example, remains a phenomenon that is not known according to Pieter van Dokkum. ” The researchers believe the gas is being heated by the motion of the black hole hitting the gas, or it could be radiation from an accretion disk around the black hole “says NASA.
Subscribe to Numerama on Google News to not miss any news!