Scientists detect a black hole swallowing a neutron star

Scientists, including the Australian National University (ANU), said they detected a black hole swallowing a neutron star for the first time.

Neutron stars and black holes are the super-dense remains of dead stars.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, in the United States and Italy, gravitational wave discovery devices detected ripples in space and time due to a cataclysmic event that occurred at about $ 8,550 billion. kilometers from the Earth.

Professor Susan Scott, of the School of Research Physics at ANU, said this feat completed the team's observations on their initial wish list, which included the merger of two black holes and the collision of two neutron stars.

"About 900 million years ago, this black hole ate a very dense star, known as a neutron star, as Pac-man – probably smothered it instantly", said Professor Scott, head of the group of General Theory of Relativity and Data Analysis at ANU and chief investigator of the ARC Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).

"The ANU SkyMapper telescope responded to the detection alert and swept the entire area of ​​probable space where the event occurred, but we did not find any visual confirmation. "

Scientists are still analyzing the data to confirm the exact size of the two objects, but early results indicate a very high probability that a black hole will envelop a neutron star. The final results should be published in scientific journals.

"Scientists have never detected a black hole lower than five solar masses or a neutron star greater than about 2.5 times the mass of our Sun," said Professor Scott.

"Based on this experience, we are very confident that we have just detected a black hole engulfing a neutron star.

"However, there is a slight but intriguing possibility that the swallowed object is a very light black hole, much lighter than any other black hole we know in the universe." This would be a truly awesome consolation prize . "

The ANU plays a leading role in Australia's partnership with LIGO (LIGO), the most sensitive scientific instrument ever built, which includes twin detectors in the United States.

The European gravitational observatory has a gravitational wave detector called Virgo in Italy.