Black Hole Gets a Kick

[derekmcd]

<p>Rogue black holes.&nbsp; As if we didn't have enough to worry about <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif" border="0" alt="Laughing" title="Laughing" />.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3" color="#1b4872"><strong>Huge Black Hole Catapulted Through Space </strong><br /><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" color="#333333"><strong>By Andrea Thompson</strong><br />Senior Staff Writer<br /></font></font><font face="arial,helvetica" size="1" color="#330066">posted: 29 April 2008<br />04:12 pm ET</font><br /> <a name="beginstory"></a> <font face="arial" size="2"> <font face="arial"> <div class="Section1"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">A colossal black hole has been spotted exiting its home galaxy, kicked out after a huge cosmic merger took place.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">The event, seen for the first time, was announced today.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">When two colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought that the black holes at their cores may fuse together too. Astronomers have theorized that the resulting energy release could propel the new black hole from its parent galaxy out into space, but no one has found such an event. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">"We have observed the pre-merger stages of black holes," said Stefanie Komossa of the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, part of the team that made the new discovery. "But we haven't seen the actual merger event."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">Komossa and her team have now detected the consequences of such a merger: a 100-million-solar mass black hole in the process of leaving its home galaxy.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">"The consequence was that the merged black hole, the final product, the new black hole was expelled from the galaxy," Komossa said. The team's results are detailed in the May 10 issue of the journal <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters</em>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">Black holes get a kick</span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">Komossa explained that the theory behind these mergers follows from the observations that many galaxies have very massive black holes at their cores. If two galaxies with these black holes collide, "then it's sort of inevitable that these two black holes will come very close to each other."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">The black holes may not merge right away though.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">"One possibility is that for a long time they just orbit each other," like binary stars, Komossa told <em>SPACE.com</em>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">Eventually, the orbiting black holes might interact with a star or surrounding gas which could cause them to lose angular momentum. "That would be a way to push them ever-closer towards each other," Komossa said. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">Eventually, the black holes would fuse, and "in the final coalescence, or merger, of these two black holes, a giant burst of gravitational waves is emitted," she said. "Since these waves are generally emitted in one preferred direction, the black hole is then kicked in the other direction."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">The "kick" the black hole receives is akin to the recoil of a rifle. It can propel the black hole to speeds of up to several thousand kilometers per second, according theoretical simulations. The escaping black hole Komossa and her team observed was racing along at 5,900,000 mph (2,650 kilometers per second).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">The pull of the galaxy's gravity is no match for these incredible speeds, and the black hole, "will inevitably go to intergalactic space," Komossa said.</span>&nbsp;</p><br /></div></font></font>Rest of article <font size="2">here</font></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[DrRocket]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Rogue black holes.&nbsp;...Posted by derekmcd</DIV></p><p>I think this one has already come up on the Physics forum in the thread "Black holes and ejection of matter & Colliding black holes" </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[derekmcd]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I think this one has already come up on the Physics forum in the thread "Black holes and ejection of matter & Colliding black holes" <br /> Posted by DrRocket</DIV></p><p>Indeed it has... suprised I missed it.</p><p>Mods... feel free to delete this thread.&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[pradipta]

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