Astronomers Believe They Are Seeing Black Hole Birth
May 10, 1998 - 0:0
WASHINGTON Australian astronomers said on Friday they were seeing what they think is the birth of a black hole the first time this event has been seen. The astronomers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) said they were scrambling as fast as they can to get a look at the remarkable event, caused when a massive star collapses in on itself.
The first hint something unusual was happening came on April 25, when the orbiting Italian/Dutch Bepposax satellite spotted a burst of gamma rays. Gamma ray bursts are seen about twice a day and until recently astronomers had no idea where they came from. Bepposax catches them quickly enough to let astronomers spot the fading afterglow. This one looked like a supernova a fairly run-of-the-mill event.
But sometimes such a star is so heavy it falls back on itself and eventually shrinks into a tiny point known as a singularity. It creates forces so strong they pull in everything in the vicinity, even light. That is why they are known as black holes. Astronomers at the Anglo-Australian telescope near Coonabarabran were able to get a good reading of the light spectra coming from the fireball and used this to estimate its distance about 100 million light-years away.
A light-year is the distance light travels in a year at 186,000 miles (300,000 km) a second. This is virtually in our back yard, Chris Tinney of the observatory said in a statement. They also saw radio waves. This is only the third gamma-ray burster that anyone has been able to see radio waves from, Ron Ekers, director of the CSIRO Australia Telescope, said.
Unlike other gamma-ray bursters, this one is not fading away, but growing stronger, CSIRO said. This one is already 10 times stronger it's doubled in strength since last week and is still increasing, Ekers said. This is what made the astronomers think it could be the first phase of a black hole. There's no doubt we are seeing a supernova, said Elaine Sadler of the University of Sydney. It could be the death of a really giant star, up to 100 times the mass of the sun.
Dale Frail of the U.S. National Radio Observatory however said that what astronomers were seeing could be two separate events a gamma-ray burster and a supernova nearby. Nature can be very cruel, and it has done this to me before, he said. Earlier this week U.S. astronomers said that a gamma-ray burst seen in December had released more energy than anything ever before seen in the universe.
(Reuters)
The first hint something unusual was happening came on April 25, when the orbiting Italian/Dutch Bepposax satellite spotted a burst of gamma rays. Gamma ray bursts are seen about twice a day and until recently astronomers had no idea where they came from. Bepposax catches them quickly enough to let astronomers spot the fading afterglow. This one looked like a supernova a fairly run-of-the-mill event.
But sometimes such a star is so heavy it falls back on itself and eventually shrinks into a tiny point known as a singularity. It creates forces so strong they pull in everything in the vicinity, even light. That is why they are known as black holes. Astronomers at the Anglo-Australian telescope near Coonabarabran were able to get a good reading of the light spectra coming from the fireball and used this to estimate its distance about 100 million light-years away.
A light-year is the distance light travels in a year at 186,000 miles (300,000 km) a second. This is virtually in our back yard, Chris Tinney of the observatory said in a statement. They also saw radio waves. This is only the third gamma-ray burster that anyone has been able to see radio waves from, Ron Ekers, director of the CSIRO Australia Telescope, said.
Unlike other gamma-ray bursters, this one is not fading away, but growing stronger, CSIRO said. This one is already 10 times stronger it's doubled in strength since last week and is still increasing, Ekers said. This is what made the astronomers think it could be the first phase of a black hole. There's no doubt we are seeing a supernova, said Elaine Sadler of the University of Sydney. It could be the death of a really giant star, up to 100 times the mass of the sun.
Dale Frail of the U.S. National Radio Observatory however said that what astronomers were seeing could be two separate events a gamma-ray burster and a supernova nearby. Nature can be very cruel, and it has done this to me before, he said. Earlier this week U.S. astronomers said that a gamma-ray burst seen in December had released more energy than anything ever before seen in the universe.
(Reuters)