Black hole explodes right in our neighborhood
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A black hole
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December 2, 1997
Web posted at: 6:55 p.m. EST (2355 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers said Tuesday they had
captured the image of an exploding black hole, right in
Earth's own Milky Way galaxy.
They used a string of radio telescopes across Britain to
capture an image of the explosion, which was predicted by
Einstein's theories.
The scientists, at Britain's Nuffield Radio Astronomy
Laboratory, said the black hole is at the center of a
"micro-quasar" called GRS1915 in the constellation of Aquila
the Eagle. It is only about 40,000 light-years away -- a
light-year being the distance light travels in a year at
186,000 miles a second.
"GRS1915 is believed to consist of a black hole several times
more massive than our sun, in orbit with a normal star," Rob
Fender, of the University of Amsterdam, said in a statement
released by the American Astronomical Society.
"Matter is heated to intense temperatures and radiates X-rays
as it spirals in toward the black hole. Most of it is sucked
in and lost forever," he said. "The process is so violent
that unpredictable explosions occur, producing these
spectacular jets."
The international team used MERLIN (the Multi Element Radio
Linked Interferometer Network), which is made up of six
individual radio telescopes spread out across England. They
added up to the equivalent of a single huge dish 135 miles
across.
The system can see detail as small as a coin from 50 miles
away.
The images show two streams of bullets of ultra-hot gas being
shot out in opposite directions with an apparent speed more
than double that of light.
One jet is moving toward Earth at an angle, and the other
away, with real velocities greater than 90 percent of the
speed of light.
Black holes are believed to be collapsed stars that have so
much mass, and therefore so much gravity, that they suck in
everything that gets near them. Even light cannot escape
their power and swirls down into the black hole like water
disappearing down a drain.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.