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A new study reports that a globe of matter the size of the Earth is sucked into a black hole at nearly a third of the speed of light.
The speed of light in a vacuum is 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second and, according to Einstein's theory of restricted relativity, it is the maximum speed for anything traveling in our universe. Thus, something that turns at one-third the speed of light travels at nearly 90,000 km per second, which is fast enough to double around the Earth.
The newly observed infall event occurred in the PG211 + 143 galaxy, more than 1 billion light-years away from Earth. Astronomers have spotted it with the help of the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space telescope, which observes the universe in X-ray light. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]
Disc structure characteristic of the simulation of a misaligned disc around a rotating black hole. Credit: K. Pounds et al. / University of Leicester
"We were able to follow a group of material the size of the Earth for about a day because it was pulled toward the black hole, accelerating up to a third of the speed of light before being swallowed up by the hole, "writes Ken Pounds. , a physicist from space at the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement.
The material has reached such incredible speeds that black holes have extremely strong gravitational fields, so powerful that even light can escape once it exceeds a critical limit known as the "light". horizon of events. (That's why they call black holes.)
There are several types of black holes. The most massive type, called the supermassive black hole, lies at the heart of most, if not all, galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
If there is enough material falling into a supermassive black hole, the area shines in super-bright X-rays that are visible over long distances. These objects are called quasars or active galactic nuclei. However, most black holes are too compact to pull such material – which is mostly gas-in immediately. Instead, the material rotates around the black hole, forming an "accretion disk" as it spirals closer. Eventually, the gas moves so fast that it becomes extremely hot and bright, generating radiation that we can often see from the Earth.
The XMM-Newton spacecraft.
Credit: ESA
"The orbit of the gas around the black hole is often supposed to be aligned with the rotation of the black hole, but there is no compelling reason for that to be the case," wrote representatives of the black hole. 39, University of Leicester in the same statement.
"In fact, the reason we've been in the summer and the winter is that the daily rotation of the Earth does not match its annual orbit around the sun," they added. . "Until now, it was unclear how a misaligned rotation could affect gas infallibility." This is particularly relevant for the supply of supermassive black holes, since the material-clouds of interstellar gas or even insulated stars – can fall in any direction. "
The members of the study team think that the gas is indeed misaligned with the rotation of the black hole in PG211 + 143. In such situations, the accretion discs can be twisted and torn ; some of the pieces can then collide with each other, canceling their rotation and allowing a gas to zoom directly to the black hole, rather than spinning around it.
If misaligned discs are common, it might explain why the black holes of the primitive universe grew so fast. Such black holes would turn relatively slowly, which would allow them to absorb more gas in less time than expected, the researchers said.
The new study was published this month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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