Black Holes: How Detected?
Aug 23, 2019 10:50:18 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Aug 23, 2019 10:50:18 GMT -5
Black Holes: How Detected?
One of the most mysterious objects in our universe is what is called a black hole. A black hole is a star that has collapsed under its own gravity until it shrinks to a point or singularity. This singularity of highly-compressed material is known as a black hole because it cannot emit light due to its enormous gravitational pull. Yet it is detectable in various ways.
For example, it might be blocking the light from stars behind it so its circular outline will stand out against such a backdrop.
It might be warping their light so that it causes gravitational lensing. That's when gravity forces light to deviate so that the position of the light source or sources is warped,.
Graviatational Lensing
sourcehttps://www.seeker.com/hunting-black-holes-through-a-gravitational-lens-1765650708.html is observed in multiple places.
sourcehttps://www.seeker.com/hunting-black-holes-through-a-gravitational-lens-1765650708.html is observed in multiple places.
It might be causing nearby stars to orbit it in extremely high velocities which prevents them from falling in. They are seen orbiting yet nothing seems to be there. By estimating the number and size of such stars based on their type, and sizes the black hole's mass can be estimated. .
Black holes can also be detected by in-falling gasses which form an accretion disk that emit detectable X-ray radiation as they circle it before plunging in. Such in-falling material might also result in high energy jets which are produced in some galaxies whose black hole is ravenously gorging itself on accretion disk matter at a furious rate.
Fortunately we are located approximately twenty-Six thousand light Years from our galaxy's super-massive black hole and are not in any danger from falling in. One thing to keep in mind is that we are seeuing that region were our black hole resides the way it looked approx 26,000 years ago since it took the light we are seeing that long to reach us. What is actually occurring right now there is beyond our detection. We will have to wait for 26,000 years to go by in order to detect what is occurring right now.