Scientists detect mysterious ‘intermediate mass’ black hole

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

Scientists detect mysterious ‘intermediate mass’ black hole

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

Key point –  

1. Scientists have annoumced the discovery of a black hole — the oldest ever detected — that shouldn't even exist according to the current understanding of cosmic monsters so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull.

Important details – 

1. Born of a merger between two other black holes, GW190521 weighs in at 142 times the mass of our Sun and is the first “intermediate mass” black hole ever observed, two consortiums of some 1,500 scientists reported in a pair of studies.
2. A so-called stellar-class black hole forms when a dying star collapses, and is typically three to ten solar masses in size.
3. Supermassive black holes found at the centre of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, range from millions to billions of solar masses.
4. Up to now, black holes with mass 100 to 1,000 times that of our Sun had never been found.
5. This is the first evidence of a black hole in this mass range; it may lead to a paradigm shift in the astrophysics of black holes.
6. The findings, experts believe, support the idea that supermassive black holes could be formed through the repeated merger of these mid-sized bodies.
7. What scientists actually observed were gravitational waves produced more than seven billion years ago when GW190521 was formed by the collision of two smaller black holes of 85 and 65 solar masses.
8. When they smashed together, eight solar masses worth of energy was released, creating one of the most powerful events in the Universe since the Big Bang.
9. Gravitational waves were first measured in September 2015, earning the lead researchers a physics Nobel two years later.
10. Albert Einstein anticipated gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity, which theorised that they spread through the Universe at the speed of light.

Challenge to current models – 

1. GW190521 was detected on May 21, 2019 by three interferometers, which can measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus as gravitational waves pass Earth.
2. According to current knowledge, the gravitational collapse of a star cannot form black holes in the range of 60 to 120 solar masses because — at that size — the stars are completely blown apart by the supernova explosion that accompanies collapse.
3. And yet, the two black holes that gave rise to GW190521 were both in the range. This event is a challenge for the current models of black hole formation. It is also a hint of how much is still not known.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.