Scientists spot startlingly close black holes in Hyades star cluster
- Reference: 1694677029
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/09/14/scientists_spot_close_black_holes/
- Source link:
Way, way closer, in fact.
Like, more-than-1,400-light-years-closer-to-Earth-than-the-last-one close.
[1]
These new, uncomfortably close black holes were discovered by an international group of EU scientists looking at the [2]Hyades star cluster, which sits in the Taurus constellation around 150 light years from Earth. [3]According to the team's [4]research , the data only points to one conclusion: The presence of two or three black holes in the cluster.
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"Our simulations can only simultaneously match the mass and size of the Hyades if some black holes are present at the center of the cluster today (or until recently)," [7]explained Stefano Torniamenti, first author on the paper and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padua in Italy.
A black hole 150 light years away is still a ways off locally speaking, but not in the grand scheme of the Milky Way, which is some 100,000 light years across. In that context, it's practically right on top of us. The [8]previously discovered nearest black hole, Gaia BH1, is located 1,560 light years from Earth.
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If, as the ESA described it, Gaia BH1 is "in our cosmic backyard," then the Hyades black holes are in your fridge rummaging for leftovers.
Tracked, but not seen
Given black holes are, well, black, it's tough to get a read on one. Torniamenti's team didn't directly [10]see the Hyades black holes – but they did see evidence for them.
The goal of the study was to see if they could detect the presence of black holes in star clusters like Hyades, which are groups of relatively nearby stars that form as massive clouds of stellar gas collapse, maintaining some gravitational pull between objects. Some clusters hang around, like Hyades. Others, like the cluster that birthed the Sun, have long since [11]dissipated . The presence of black holes and their immense gravitational pull could be one reason why such clusters still exist.
[12]Hide and seek in outer space highlights a battle here on Earth
[13]James Webb spots the early galaxies responsible for tidying up the universe
[14]LIGO cranks up the sensitivity to sniff out gravitational waves
[15]Astronomers say they've seen the largest explosion yet – and we just had to talk to them
To determine if Hyades contained a black hole, the team modeled the positions and mass of Hyades' stars and tracked their motion with a variable number of black holes included in the group. A single, central black hole "quenches the segregation of visible stars," causing reduced distribution, the team said, while simulations without a black hole end up 30 percent smaller than the Hyades we see today.
Add two to three black holes, however, and the models start to line up with the present-day position of stars in Hyades, which the team said is further confirmed by the actual distribution of high-mass stars in the cluster. Even if one of the black holes were ejected from the cluster "recently" – that is, less than 150 million years ago – the team said the same density profile is still found.
Note: For the sake of modeling a black hole ejection, the team estimated a stray black hole would be around 60 parsecs from the Hyades – around 195 light years. So don't worry: if a stray black hole was ejected in our direction we'd probably already be dead!
The results of the model and study of Hyades, the team said, suggest that studying the radial mass distribution of stars in a cluster is the most promising method for finding the presence of black holes in star clusters. Since it's the closest cluster to Earth, Hyades was an ideal candidate for observation.
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The team isn't sure whether Hyades is unique in its black hole richness, or whether such objects are common in other star clusters, and hopes to use the same method to find out. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZQLZxH@MRFec0upYotWcOgAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/v-shaped-hyades-star-cluster-easy-to-find/
[3] https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/524/2/1965/7210551?login=false
[4] https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/524/2/1965/7210551?login=false
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQLZxH@MRFec0upYotWcOgAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://web.ub.edu/en/web/actualitat/w/study-hints-at-the-existence-of-the-closest-black-holes-to-earth-in-the-hyades-star-cluster
[8] https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_discovers_a_new_family_of_black_holes
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQLZxH@MRFec0upYotWcOgAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/19/black_hole_pics/
[11] https://www.astronomy.com/observing/ask-astro-what-happened-to-the-suns-original-star-cluster/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/07/opinion_column_voyager/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/jwsts_latest_resolved_space_mystery/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/26/ligo_upgrade_gravitational_wave/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/13/astroboffins_have_witnessed_the_largest/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZQLZxH@MRFec0upYotWcOgAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The Asylum has shown the way
we all die a horribly stretched and spaghettificated death.
Bless his noodly appendages, quick, while there's still time!
Re: The Asylum has shown the way
Take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
Black holes in the Hyades eh? The scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill forever.
"we'd probably already be dead"
In the category of rogue planets or stars, the possibility of direct collision is almost zero. But you don't need a rogue star, or black hole, to collide with Earth in order to destroy Humanity (and possibly all life on Earth as well).
A star or black hole passing close enough to our Solar System will throw planetary orbits out of whack, likely ejecting several, if not all. That would logically depend on how close it gets. But one thing is sure : if Earth gets ejected, we're all on a timer to the deepest freeze we will ever know.
However, even if none of our planets are actually ejected, the outer planets' orbits will certainly be perturbed, which will very likely in turn perturb the orbits of the inner planets. Not to mention everything in the Kuiper Belt will go nuts, and whatever is beyond as well.
So, even if the Earth possibly stays in its actual orbit, the amount of asteroids being josled by all this will be enormous, and there's every chance that we might see a new Late Bombardment in the years that follow.
The only question is, at what distance are we doomed by a passing star or black hole ? If it is two light-years away, are we safe ?
Re: "we'd probably already be dead"
Yes, we'd be safe. Our nearest star is just over 4 light years away, so we must have had many passes within 2 light years since the solar system stabilised.
Re: "we'd probably already be dead"
I wouldn’t be too worried by a properly black black hole at that distance. But if it’s got an accretion disk spraying us with relativistic jets of matter, that’s a different kettle of fish. We’d be done for.
" The team isn't sure whether Hyades is unique in its black hole richness, or whether such objects are common in other star clusters "
If that was the first one they tried and they got a hit first time, it makes it quite likely that they are common.
Given that black holes typically form when a massive star dies, and that process involves a supernova, and these things are, relatively speaking, on our cosmic doorstep, I'm left wondering if their formation coincides with previous mass extinction events?
The Asylum has shown the way
So don't worry: if a stray black hole was ejected in our direction we'd probably already be dead!
Don't worry? The gravity of the situation demands that we panic right away and find a way to move a black hole out of our way, pronto! Hell will be on top of us before you know it and we all die in the process. We need a solution before we all die a horribly stretched and spaghettificated death. The Asylum has created many good inspirational moving pictures to show the way. Time to make it real and do something about that invisible Black Threat we can't see, hear or smell.