One University of California at Berkeley A research team led by graduate student Casey Lamm and associate professor of astronomy Jessica Law may have discovered the first “marine floating” black hole, science daily referred.
According to the director, they estimated that this invisible object, OB110462, is between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of the Sun and 2,280 to 6,260 light-years away. Currently, researchers say it could also be a neutron star, or a “city-sized” star. Born when huge, stars collapse and die. Regardless of whether it’s a black hole or a neutron star, Science Daily reports that the mysterious object is the first “stellar ghost” ever discovered floating in space without a companion star.
“This is the first floating black hole or neutron star to be detected using a gravitational microlensing,” Lu told the agency. Lu has been searching for floating black holes since 2008 and has observed OB110462 since 2020. “Using a thin lens, we can examine and weigh these tiny, compact objects. Things that can’t be seen otherwise.” Although black holes are generally invisible, researchers can use a microgravity lens to see how light from distant stars with a strong gravitational field distorts and distorts.
to me Department of Astronomy at the University of California, BerkeleyBlack holes are “one of the most unusual phenomena in astrophysics”. Its website says there are about 100 million stellar black holes in the Milky Way, and Science Daily reports that the UC Berkeley team now estimates there are 200 million black holes. The findings suggest that determining the total number will help astronomers better understand how stars die — and potentially shed more light on the evolution of our galaxy.
For now, Lu’s team says it’s not possible to determine if OB110462 is a black hole or a neutron star, but they hope to collect more data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and do a more detailed analysis later.
“As much as we want to say it’s definitely a black hole, we have to report all permitted solutions,” Lu told Science Daily. This includes low-mass black holes and possibly even neutron stars.
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