An enormous black hole has torn apart a star similar to our own sun. Normally this event produces a short burst of gamma ray radiation. Astronomers regard these events as signs that a star is collapsing in its death.
But these gamma rays are lasting for months and continue even now. Initially detected on March 28th, the radiation from the constellation Draco is unusual. The black hole was apparently dormant until this happened. Joshua Bloom of the University of California at Berkeley figues this kind of intense gamma ray may happen once per black hole in a million years.
The gravitation pull of the black hole on this particular star was so enormous that exerted what is termed a tidal disruption on the star.
Bloom said this event could be used to learn more about how black holes grow. "We still don’t understand how black hoes an the universe grow. We think most black holes start off as being no more than the mass of our Sun… How they go from 10 solar masses to a billion solar masses is critical."
-- summarized by the blog author from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_space_blackhole
But these gamma rays are lasting for months and continue even now. Initially detected on March 28th, the radiation from the constellation Draco is unusual. The black hole was apparently dormant until this happened. Joshua Bloom of the University of California at Berkeley figues this kind of intense gamma ray may happen once per black hole in a million years.
The gravitation pull of the black hole on this particular star was so enormous that exerted what is termed a tidal disruption on the star.
Bloom said this event could be used to learn more about how black holes grow. "We still don’t understand how black hoes an the universe grow. We think most black holes start off as being no more than the mass of our Sun… How they go from 10 solar masses to a billion solar masses is critical."
-- summarized by the blog author from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_space_blackhole
No comments:
Post a Comment