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Scientists using data from India's first dedicated astronomy satellite, AstroSat, and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, found that a black hole in the 4U 1630-47 binary star system was near the maximum possible .
Relatively smaller black holes are exotic final states consisting of massive star nuclei, said astronomers led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. The severity of such a collapsing core is so strong that its entire mass is reduced to a point, according to accepted research for publication in The astrophysical journal. This point, however, can not be seen directly because nothing, not even light, can escape from an area that surrounds it, which justifies the name of the city. object.
Surprisingly, astronomical black holes are the simplest objects known in the universe because they can only be fully characterized by two properties, mass and speed of rotation. Therefore, the researchers stated that the measurements of these two properties are particularly important for exploring some extreme aspects of the universe and the fundamental physics associated with them.
Extreme aspects of the universe
"The scientific measurement of the rotation speed of the black hole, an extremely exotic but simplest object in the universe, is close to the maximum possible value," Sudip Bhattacharyya, associate professor at TIFR and principal investigator of AstroSat Telescope soft X-ray (SXT). told PTI. "It's usually very important to probe some extreme aspects of the universe, as well as fundamental physics (gravity theory, for example)."
"Such measurements, in particular the speed of rotation, are very difficult to carry out and can only be performed by high quality radiographic observations in the good state of the binary star system, in which the black hole engulfs the material of its companion. star, "said Mayukh Pahari, who started this job at TIFR, before joining the University of Southampton in the UK.
"The SXT and Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) aboard the first dedicated AstroSat Indian astronomy satellite played a key role in measuring the black hole rotation speed, which corresponds to the results of our contemporary Chandra satellite data, "Bhattacharyya added.
AstroSat-Chandra Study
"From this first AstroSat-Chandra joint study of a black hole, which could lead to such cooperations, we found that the black hole of 4U 1630-47 was spinning very fast, with a rate that was not not much lower than the maximum possible rate, which makes it even more exotic, "added Professor AR Rao of TIFR.
AstroSat was launched in 2015 by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It is India's first dedicated astronomy satellite, and the SXT aboard AstroSat is the first Indian X-ray telescope.
"In fact, aside from Japan, I think India is the first Asian country to build an X-ray telescope (for example, China could not build such a telescope until now) "said Bhattacharyya.
He pointed out that "this first cooperation between India and the United States using AstroSat and Chandra satellites as part of studies on black holes should pave the way for future collaborations of this type".
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