Impossible: Astronomers bewildered | Queensland Times



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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a supermassive black hole that challenges current theories about the universe and should not exist.

The mysterious black hole is located in the heart of the spiral galaxy NGC 3147 and weighs about 250 million times more than the Sun.

The black hole phenomenon NGC 3147 has been described in the journal Astronomy Monthly Notices of the Royal Society of Astronomy.

The black hole is surrounded by a thin disc, consisting of debris and gas flowing around the edge of the hole.

It's this disc that baffles astronomers because technically it should not be there.

Indeed, the black hole is actually "hungry" because its huge gravitational field does not capture enough material and that black holes 'hungry' do not form discs of material – at least scientists thought.

Stefano Bianchi, lead author of the study, said: "This is the same type of disc that we see in objects 1000 or even 100 000 times brighter.

"Predictions of current models of gas dynamics in very weak active galaxies have clearly failed."

The very first image of a black hole in the M87 galaxy, published by astronomers using the Horizon Event Telescope. CREDIT: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration for Martin George Space Column for Hobart Mercury

The very first image of a black hole in the M87 galaxy, published by astronomers using the Horizon Event Telescope. CREDIT: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration for Martin George Space Column for Hobart Mercury

The black hole, located about 130 million light-years from Earth, contains a debris disk that rotates at an occasional speed of 18,628 km / s, or 10% of the speed of light.

By spotting this record, astronomers had the chance to see two of Einstein's theories on relativity in action and could help them understand the process that occurs at the edge of black holes.

Bianchi said, "It's an intriguing look at a record very close to a black hole, so close that the velocities and intensity of the gravitational force affect the way we see the photons of light. "

The researchers will now search for more galaxies with black holes like this in the hope of explaining the phenomenon.

The study of black holes is important because they are the largest and most powerful objects in the universe.

They have the power to create, maintain and destroy, but we still know little about them.

Sheperd Doeleman, director of Event Horizon Telescope, describes them as: "A one-way gateway to our universe".

In other space news, astronomers have missed a huge asteroid circling the Earth for decades – and the strange orbit.

Astronomers have created a "cosmic reminder" that could help both experts and amateur observers to search for extraterrestrial life.

And here's why some people still think that moon landings were falsified 50 years later – and the man who initiated the theory of "hoax".

This story was originally published in The Sun and is reproduced with permission.

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