Astronomers Discover A New Black Hole In Our Galaxy: Center of the Milky Way

Astronomers discover a new black hole in our galaxy
October 5, 2012 by Francis Reddy

(Phys.org)—NASA's Swift satellite recently detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.

physorg

This is really fascinating. However, I am wondering how this will affect us, if at all. I need the science guru's here to look closely at this. Could this be the unexplained pull on our planets?

Here is another article regarding this black hole;

Astronomers discover star racing around black hole at Milky Way center October 4, 2012
The two W. M. Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, observing the galactic center. The lasers are used to create an artificial star in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, which is then used to measure the blurring effects of the lower atmosphere (the effect that makes the stars twinkle in the night sky). The blurring gets corrected in real time with the help of a deformable mirror. This is the adaptive optics technique. Credit: Ethan Tweedie UCLA astronomers report the discovery of a remarkable star that orbits the enormous black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in a blistering 11-and-a-half years—the shortest known orbit of any star near this black hole.

physorg.com

Thanks for your time
Pax

Nice info but I thought they always knew this? Or have I missed something new being the clutz i am?

reply to post by michael1983l


well that is what I thought too. Apparently, they were making a hypothesis before but now they are certain. The black hole also has 2 stars that are orbiting, not just one.

Now, here is something to consider as well. Japanese astronomers have just figured out the distance from the sun to the Galactic center is 26,100 light years and that the Galactic rotation velocity in the solar system is 240km/s.

The Galactic rotation velocity from this research is higher than that of previously known (220km/s). This results in the conclusion that the mass of the Galaxy, especially that of dark matter, is about 20% larger than what has been previously considered.

physorg

I just wonder if this will some how change this black hole.

Thanks kindly,
Pax

reply to post by paxnatus


Oh thanks, I love stuff like this. I'm of the opinion that every Galaxy has a black hole at the center, it makes perfect sense.

What is the purpose of the black hole being in the center of our galaxy is the true question...

Why is there a black hole? What is its function? What created it? And if the entire matter that makes up our galaxy is ultimately orbiting it...what purpose is it that our galaxy is even in existence? Is it some sort of galactic recycling center so to speak?

Already been posted. The first thread is here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by twinsoulz23


Well a black hole is just a collapsed dead star and as our Galaxy is relativly old then there is bound to be dead stars already. The heavier the object, the more likely it is to sink to the bottom. the Galaxy pretty much will orbit the black hole much like our planet orbits our sun. Over time the black hole will eventually chew up the whole Galaxy as will every other Galaxy out there. When this happens the black holes that are the only reminants of the Galaxies will start chewing each other up until we end up with a nother singularity of super dense super hot matter, then we will probably see another Big Bang and the rebirth of a new Universe.

I have a question.

Since when it is our galaxy ?

reply to post by mideast

That's a good one.
I have one too... Since when it is our universe?

Originally posted by mideast
I have a question.

Since when it is our galaxy ?

Originally posted by zilebeliveunknown
reply to post by mideast

 

That's a good one.
I have one too... Since when it is our universe?

I was under the impression that when someone says "our galaxy" or "our universe", they mean the one in which we live.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

I wouldn't know that

I've intuitively thought that there is a black hole at the center of every galaxy. What else can keep so much mass spinning around it.

reply to post by paxnatus


Ahh space, all the similar terminology can be pretty confusing.

The two articles you have linked are not discussing the same black hole or discovery. There are a couple different types of black holes. Stellar-mass black holes are 5 to a couple 10's of times the solar mass of our sun. Intermediate-mass black holes are many 10's to 100's or 1000's of solar masses, and Supermassive black holes are 100,000's to 1,000,000,000,000's of times the solar mass. Side note; fun fact, our sun contains 99.86% of all the mass in our solar system and the earth only makes up about .000303% of it.

"The pattern we're seeing is observed in X-ray novae where the central object is a black hole. Once the X-rays fade away, we hope to measure its mass and confirm its black hole status," said Boris Sbarufatti, an astrophysicist at Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy, who currently is working with other Swift team members at Penn State in University Park, Pa.

Read more at: phys.org...

The first article you linked discusses the discovery of a stellar-mass black hole or neutron star that was detected through the observation of an x-ray novae(NEAR the center of our galaxy). There are a dozen or so believed confirmed observations of stellar-mass and intermediate mass black holes in our Milky Way Galaxy, but 100's to 1000's are speculated to be in our galaxy. With black holes being born from dead stars and there being two hundred to four hundred billion stars in the milky way alone I feel like this is a pretty fair assumption.

The second article linked is discussing the discovery of a star that orbits incredibly close around the supermassive blackhole at the center of the Milky Way. It finishes an orbit around the supermassive black hole in about 16 earth years! This is awesome because it means that it may be close enough for us to observe the warp of space time around the star caused by the blackhole's gravitational pull as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. We believe it to be common place, if not an essential part of, for galaxies to contain a supermassive black hole at the their center.

Two great articles, thanks for the post. Keep thinkin about space! ^_^