In a galaxy 22 million light-years distant, a black hole was born. For the first time in recorded history, humans were watching the astronomical phenomenon, reports a team from NASA, Ohio State, and Caltech. The “Fireworks Galaxy” is known for its frequent supernovae. But starting in 2009, one of its stars named N6946-BH1 brightened just a bit – but then had disappeared from the most advanced telescopes by 2015. The team used the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, the Large Binocular Telescope, and a variety of other methods to try and get a glimpse of the vanished star, as they describe in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . But there wasn’t even any infrared radiation that marked the spot where the star had been, proving it wasn’t hidden behind a dust cloud or blocked by another object out in space, they said. By process of elimination, they have determined that the star is just no longer there. Although it was 25 times more massive than our sun, it didn’t ...
Comments
Post a Comment