Scientists discover a brand-new black hole and call it ‘needle in a haystack’
We are all familiar with the term ‘needle in a haystack,’ aren’t we? When it becomes extremely difficult or almost impossible to locate something, we describe it as finding needle in a haystack. Turns out that this idiom is apt for dormant black holes, the ones that do not devour celestial objects close to them, like their active counterparts. Recently, a team of astronomers have discovered a dormant, yet exotic black hole outside the Milky Way. Now, that’s rare, as millions of these celestial bodies are found inside galaxies. This particular black hole has been discovered after six years of research, thanks to the Very Large Telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The findings of the research have been published in journal Nature Astronomy.
The new-found black hole
You’re probably thinking what we are thinking. What sets this black hole apart? Apparently, this black hole is not the result of the explosion of a dying star. As some of you might know, this is indeed a rare case, as most black holes are formed by the collapse of a massive star that in turn leads to a super cosmic explosion known as supernova. However, in this case, there’s as such no visible trace of supernova so far. The star accompanying this new black hole collapsed completely without any explosion. How this happened is still a mystery for the scientists though.
The recently discovered black hole, found outside the Milky Way is located in the Tarantula Nebula, a star-forming region in our neighbouring galaxy named Large Magellanic Cloud, that is situated 160,000 lights years away from the Earth.
As for its nature, this black hole is not only dormant but also has a stellar-mass, almost nine times that of the sun’s. Not only that, it is X-ray quiet, meaning it doesn’t gobble up objects in its proximity by emitting X-ray radiation and generating strong gravitational force. It is also said to orbit a giant, luminous, hot blue-coloured star having the mass equivalent to 25 suns. In fact, the black hole and the star make up a binary system that the scientists have named as VFTS 243.
Interestingly, this brand-new discovery will help scientists understand how and why stars collapse at the end of their life cycles and also help explore more about supernovae.
Why was it difficult to locate this black hole?
Extremely high gravitational pull does not allow light to pass through black holes making them totally invisible. So, it becomes nearly impossible to find them. However, astronomers rely on space telescopes with special tools to find clues from surrounding areas and spot them. Actually, the X-ray that black holes emit after gobbling up nearby objects such as gas, dust or any other stellar substances from a companion star guide scientist towards them. But a dormant or inactive black hole, like our new-found ones, doesn’t any clue or hint to offer as it doesn’t feed on any celestial object. That’s what made it so challenging for astronomers to trace it.