Rogue black hole discovered only 5000 light-years away - Universe Today by AndyTomaswick
That detection comes at the end of a 6-year observational campaign, with dozens of authors collaborating on a paper recently published in arXiv . Those six years of painstakingly gathered data all started back in 2011, when a star about 20,000 light-years away brightened suddenly. Scientists were looking for just such an event and had found several before but needed more data to be sure of what they were actually seeing.Microlensing leaves two tell-tale signs.
Past observations have shown plenty of brightening events that microlenses might have caused, but astronomers have never before seen the positional shift that would confirm that theory. Kailash Sahu and his colleagues turned Hubble, which is still one of the most functional observation platforms in humanity’s arsenal, toward the star a few weeks after its original brightening. They then checked back in with it periodically over the course of the next six years.
With that weight estimate, scientists were also able to estimate how fast the black hole was moving and came up with around 45 kilometers per second – much faster than the stars surrounding it in that area of the Milky Way. Such a speed differential also points to a potential source of the black hole itself – an explosion from a supermassive star probably both created the black hole and kicked it on its way.
Even without that clear, traceable path, scientists have now definitively found something they have long sought, and they won’t be alone in doing so. Several all-sky surveys are popping up soon that will help scientiststhe skies for events like that in June 2011, and they will most likely find plenty more.
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