Astronomers have uncovered a supermassive black hole that has been propelled out of the center of a distant galaxy by what could be the awesome power of gravitational waves.
Though there have been several other suspected, similarly booted black holes elsewhere, none has been confirmed so far. Astronomers think this object, detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, is a very strong case. Weighing more than 1 billion suns, the rogue black hole is the most massive black hole ever detected to have been kicked out of its central home.
Researchers estimate that it took the equivalent energy of 100 million supernovas exploding simultaneously to jettison the black hole. The most plausible explanation for this propulsive energy is that the monster object was given a kick by gravitational waves unleashed by the merger of two hefty black holes at the center of the host galaxy.
The black hole had traveled more than 35,000 light-years from the center, which is more than the distance between the sun and the center of the Milky Way.
The astronomers calculated that the black hole is moving so fast it would travel from Earth to the moon in three minutes. That’s fast enough for the black hole to escape the galaxy in 20 million years and roam through the universe forever.
A Black Hole Has Been Kicked Out Of Its Galaxy
Video Editor: Team 121 Creators (
Narration: Sidhart Viyyapu (
Project Head: Rajkumar Shukla (
Production: World Of Science Media
©2022, World Of Science (WOS) Media. All Rights Reserved.
#blackhole #blackholefacts #spacefacts
Source link
