Astronomers have discovered a monster black hole which appears to have been expelled out of the core of a galaxy by powerful gravitational waves. This is not the first time when scientists suspect similar massive black holes which were propelled out of a distant galaxy. Nevertheless, none of these occurrences was confirmed so far. Astronomers believe that this monster black hole which has been spotted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope represents a strong case.
- Astronomers discovered the biggest black hole which was ever expelled out of a distant galaxy.
- This monster black hole was captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
- The black hole was estimated to have an equivalent weight to that of 1 billion suns.
The black hole appears to be weighing over 1 billion suns, being the biggest one ever traced to have been expelled out of its core galaxy. Specialists explain that the powerful gravitational waves must have been equivalent to the energy of a hundred million supernovas exploding at the same time to propel the massive black hole. Those incredibly powerful gravitational waves must have been unleashed by two other black holes that merged at the center of that host galaxy.
Astronomers claim that gravitational waves are known to be ripples in space triggered by the collision of two big objects. These waves appear to be similar to the circles which are produced when a rock is thrown into a pond. In 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) offered support to astronomers to prove the existence of gravitational waves, by detecting them when emanating after the collision of two massive black holes.
These black holes are usually several times bigger than the sun. The research team was surprised by the analysis of the Hubble telescope regarding the monster black hole. Marco Chiaberge, the team leader of the study and a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and also at John Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, claimed that he and his team thought they were looking at something very special when they first saw it.
After they had combined observations performed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Hubble Telescope, they were able that all these advanced devices were pointing towards the same situation. The amount of data collected was reported to be larger compared to any other rogue black hole ever discovered. The paper developed by Chiaberge’s team of scientists will be published on March 30 in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia
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