2023-04-25 17:38:27
Bite a piece. Then two. Then three. Four. Five maybe. And throw the cookie across the kitchen. A number of babies do that. Some black holes too, we learn today from astronomers. Not in a kitchen, but in a galaxy. Not with cookies either, but with stars…
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In the family of black holes, there are the supermassive black holes that we are starting to know quite a bit about now. There are also what astronomers call primordial black holes and stellar black holes. And finally, intermediate black holes. It is precisely those of a team of researchers of the Northwestern University (United States) speaks to us today.
The theory announces that they exist. Somewhere between stellar-mass black holes – the result of collapsing stars that have previously exploded as supernovae – and supermassive black holes – which nest in the hearts of galaxies. Black holes with an intermediate mass between about 10 and 10,000 times the mass of our Sun. Black holes that could have formed by merging stellar black holes into dense star clusters or by the collapse of particularly massive stars. But astronomers are still looking for indisputable observational evidence that there are indeed such objects in our Universe.
Researchers believe they have already discovered evidence for the existence of intermediate black holes. But their observations could just as easily, for example, turn out to correspond to accumulations of stellar black holes. To finally tell real intermediate black holes from fake ones, astronomers need to know more about how they behave. And this is precisely what the researchers of the Northwestern University have worked.
The proof that astronomers have been waiting for?
They developed new three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of black holes of varying masses. Then they projected on it, stars the size of our Sun. Star patterns, of course. Composed of many particles of which they could know at any time if they remained bound or not to their star of origin. Individually. Because they were able to calculate the gravitational force acting on each particle.
What astronomers have discovered is that a star can orbit an intermediate black hole up to five times before finally being ejected. With each of its passages, the black hole crunches a piece of it. A bit of matter that he swallows immediately. Before finally shipping what’s left of the star – a misshapen and incredibly dense core – at lightning speeds across the galaxy. Like these exiled stars, hyperfast stars that have been discovered by researchers at the center of several galaxies.
All this little merry-go-round, the simulations predict, should lead to a breathtaking light show. The emission of increasingly bright flashes as the star is shredded. A signature which could well finally constitute the famous indisputable proof of the real existence of intermediate black holes. The hunt is on…
But already, the researchers plan to relaunch their simulations on different types of stars. Giant stars or even double stars. In order to understand a little more how intermediate black holes could work. And to identify a maximum of the footprints they could leave in our Universe.
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