Since 1964, when scientists first discovered the first black hole, Cygnus X-1, there has always been a pattern: black holes were part of a binary system (when two bodies are close together and matter is transferred from one to another). the other).
By being close to some material, be it a gas cloud, star or any other object, black holes ‘feed’ and distort light – which allows scientists to observe it. However, New Zealand scientists have changed that perspective.
A new study, not yet peer-reviewed, may have discovered the first “lone” black hole.
Black hole MOQ-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-046 is apparently alone, roaming the Milky Way without interacting with any objects.
You might be wondering how this was possible, since to observe them, they need to distort some light. THE CNN contacted two experts to explain the new discovery.
But first, we need to discuss some basic concepts.
what are black holes
Black holes are extreme distortions of space-time.
“According to Einstein, space-time is the fabric of the Universe itself with three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate. With his Theory of General Relativity, Einstein proposed that the curvature, caused by the mass, of this fabric that makes up the Universe creates the phenomenon we know as gravity”, he told the CNN Roberta Duarte, astrophysicist and doctoral student at the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP).
For example, we are stuck on the Earth’s surface because the Earth’s mass bends space-time and we feel this phenomenon as gravity.
Scientists are able to observe a black hole because, “when material, which can be a cloud of gas, a star or any other object, gets trapped in the gravitational field of a black hole, the process of accretion can happen, that is, the black hole is swallowing it. this matter and the disk that forms emits electromagnetic waves, in other words, the disk shines”, explained Duarte.
According to Karolina Garcia, a master in astronomy and a student at the University of Florida, “there are also other ways of detection: either through the gravitational waves that are emitted when binary systems merge, or even, as in the case of the black hole that is at the center of the Earth. our galaxy, when we can see stars revolving around the same center and, with that, infer their presence”, he told CNN.
In short, a black hole is an extreme distortion of space-time. He is not an object like the planets or stars. “Its surface is the region where light can no longer escape. and not a surface exactly like the Earth or the Sun has”, said Duarte.
A new way of looking at black holes
The discovery of the New Zealand astronomers is, to say the least, surprising, as the experts consulted by the CNN.
The researchers observed MOQ-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 for 270 days using data from the Hubble telescope with a technology called gravitational microlensing.
“When a black hole, or any massive object, passes in front of a bright object, it causes the light from that bright object to bend and be magnified. That means that object gets even brighter. So if we observe a star long enough and at some point we see its brightness increasing and then decreasing, this could be an indication that some massive object served as a gravitational microlensing,” explained Garcia.
In the observations of MOQ-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462, the researchers were able to observe light from a star that was being distorted at a given point in its trajectory. The difference is that it is not part of a binary system, it was very far from the black hole.
Duarte points out that this distortion is caused when light passes close enough to an object that it gravitationally attracts the light, distorting its trajectory.
“Any object with mass is capable of creating this phenomenon, including the Gel Theory of Relativity was confirmed for the first time by observing how our Sun distorts the light of stars behind it”, he comments.
Using gravitational microlensing, observations were given as if the star was ‘enlarged’.
Garcia, points out what criteria the researchers used to reach the conclusion that this massive object, which served as a lens, is a black hole. “First, it emits no detectable light, and second, its mass is greater than possible for a white dwarf or even a neutron star.”
Astronomers have determined that this isolated black hole has a mass of about seven times that of our Sun and is about five thousand light-years from us.
Furthermore, the scientists found that the isolated black hole has a ‘proper motion’ of 45 km/s across the galaxy.
Duarte, from IAG-USP, says that to understand the speed of the black hole, it is necessary to understand the origin of the object.
“Because it is a stellar black hole, it is certain that it formed after the supernova of a star. It could have gotten its speed through this supernova and interactions with the environment where the star was, or it could also have gotten its speed after interactions with other objects, including another stellar black hole.”
Astrophysics points out that it is quite common for stars to have other companion stars and it can happen that these two stars are massive enough to become black holes.
“This is definitely a new way of finding black holes,” she said.
Questions still unanswered
A number of questions about the isolated black hole still remain unanswered. How did he form? How did you get speed? What is your trajectory?
Karolina Garcia of the University of Florida explains that black holes like this one arise from the death of very massive stars, when they finally explode in supernovae.
“From the observations, the authors imagine that in the area where the black hole is located there must be a lot of interstellar material. If the rate of accretion of this material by the black hole is high enough, it will be possible to detect X-ray or radio emissions”, he said, noting that this will probably be the next step of the research.
Roberta Duarte, says that this surprising result of this research opens new doors for the detection of more black holes that cause the same effect, despite the difficulty.
“This effect [encontrar buracos negros] It’s not uncommon or rare to observe, but this effect being caused by an isolated black hole and it being the observation tool is surprising.”
Garcia says the discovery opens doors for future research. “We hope this is the first discovery of many.”
Source: CNN Brasil

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