BLACK HOLE FOUND OUTSIDE OUR GALAXY FIRST TIME
It is for the first time that astronomers have pin down a black hole outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Since black hole cannot be detected by the conventional method through radiation, new techniques were used to find this one. From the motions of an orbiting star, they could identify a relatively small black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way at a distance of 1,60,000 light years. The new black hole is named NGC 1850 BH1. NGC 1850 is a cluster of thousands of stars. The new method by which it is found will be used to find more black holes in our galaxy and beyond.
Sara Saracino of Liverpool John Moore's University of UK says, "It is like Sherlock Holmes looking for criminals through their missteps, we are watching every star in the cluster with our magnifying glasses. From their orbital movements we try to identify the presence of the black hole without directly seeing those. He continues, " The result found here shows like one criminal from the gang is picked. This will help us to pick more from this cluster of stars and also from other clusters."
Since 2015 they have detected a growing number of black holes from the gravitational waves, the minute ripples they generate in space-time when two of the objects collide. The black hole itself emits no radiation but the object falling on it make good radiation. The scientists, however feel that with all these advances, it is only a mere drop in the cosmic ocean. The astronomers have estimated that there could be 100 million Stellar Mass Black Holes in the Milky Way alone.
(Indebted to the article in Science Alert by Michelle Starr on 11 November 2021)
K V George
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