Stellar Mass Black Hole "Sleeping Giant" Discovered By Scientists In Our Milky Way Galaxy

Hello, Everyone!

The universe is huge and mysterious owing to the enigmatic gases, dust,dark matter, stars, neutron stars, black holes, and galaxies present in it, and extends every moment with billions of events occurring in it at every instance.

One such mystery is a black hole which is a Black Holes as the region of space with an extremely potent gravitational pull that even light cannot escape from them and they come into existence once the dying stars shrink due to the gravitational pull of the dying stars poised toward the death of their life cycle. The gravitational pull is strong due to the concentration of mass in a tiny space, called Singularity making a black hole a region with infinite density and therefore possessing an extremely powerful gravitational pull.

Sleeping Gaint Black Hole

Pic Source:Indian Express

According to the European space agency, scientists have unveiled a black hole named "Sleeping Giant" in our Milky Way galaxy of stellar origin and having a mass of thirty-three folds of our Sun's mass. It is estimated to be about 2,000 light years from our Earth.

The stellar mass black holes are the very basic types of black holes that evolve as a result of the death of colossal stars. Their mass ranges from several multitudes of the Sun's mass to about twentyfold the mass of the Sun. Steller Black Holes occur when the core of a colossal collapsing star shrinks towards itself. Since the core is shrunk to a high level this catalyses a supernova explosion in which the dying star gets rid of its exteriors in space. The gravitational collapse of the core gives way to an array of events responsible for the supernova explosion such as Core Collapse, Rebound, Supernova Shockwave, Ejection of Material, Neutron Star, or Black Hole Formation.

The intriguing part is for the first time such a massive stellar-mass black hole has been uncovered in our Milky Way galaxy. However, such colossal black holes have been figured out in extremely distant galaxies and this new mysterious black hole "sleeping Giant" challenges the notions of the scientists for the pursuit of their origin and extension.

As we know in the black hole, the matter present is of extreme densities in nature making them regions of extremely potent gravitational pull that even light cannot escape from it. We can understand it from the Universal law of gravitation outlined by Issac Newton, the gravitational force is directly proportional to the masses and inversely related to the square of the distance between their centers which implies if the density is higher then the gravitational force will also be greater, and also more the gravitational pull means denser will be the body i.e. more compact the body will be i.e. that mass will be encapsulated in a more compact dense body or within a smaller volume. This also outlines that more denser body will have greater gravitational pull and may be therefore more compact or condensed. Therefore the concentration of mass in a tiny space makes it denser eventually attributing to possessing a very powerful gravitational pull.

The majority of the stellar mass black holes identified by scientists are gulping in the matter from the star nearby; this matter is gulped at extremely large speeds in turn getting heated up at very large temperatures which eventually radiates X-rays. The black hole, when it attracts gas from the star (a process called accretion) in its vicinity forms a disk of gas circulating about the black hole. This disk of gas is called an Accretion Disk which is the most fascinating part of a black hole. Interestingly, it is a somewhat flat circulating disc of gas that surrounds a black hole, newborn star, or any such colossal object that gulps matter. At such high temperatures, these accretion disks glow brightly. When this gas gets heated up to large temperatures, it emanates X-rays which are then traced by a telescope.

Amazingly by leveraging predictions of such X-ray binaries, the scientists have recognized 50 anticipated or predicted stellar Mass Black Holes within our galaxy-Milky Way Galaxy. Although there may be 100 million stellar-mass black holes concealed in our galaxy awaiting their discovery by scientists and astronomers.

In a few instances, there is no star in the vicinity of the black hole and they are not able to grasp the matter which implies there is no accretion disk and, in simple terms no light. These are "dormant Black Holes" according to the astronomers. Scientists carry out complicated tests on the stars orbiting at the vicinity of such black holes; to identify such dormant black holes.

During the quest for such orbiting "odd -stars" by the scientists and the researchers, the researchers discovered an old-giant star in a constellation called AQUILA.A constellation is a cluster of stars present in the universe in a specific pattern. The researchers observed an unsteady movement in the discovered star's path that it was in a loop orbiting a dormant black hole; discovered by the Gaia Space Observatory of the space agency. This discovered dormant black hole has been named"GAIA BH3".

The observations of the study are outlined in the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics".

Thank You.

References:

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/sleeping-giant-black-hole-milky-way-galaxy-9273196/