A “voracious” black hole of Thousands of solar massesrenamed NGC 6099 HLX-1was discovered in the extreme periphery of the elliptical galaxy giant NGC6099. His discovery was possible thanks to the combination of the space telescope data Hubble and the space telescope Chandrasensitive to the X -wavele lengths. The latter has detected a powerful light light emission from a dense mass of stars in the NGC6099 halo, whose characteristics are compatible with those expected by the presence of a Black Black In Intermedia (between hundreds and hundreds of thousands of solar masses) engaged in “Divorce “a star He pushed too close to his horizon of events. These violent cosmic processes, in which entire stars disappear from the universe being swallowed by a black hole, take the name of Mareal destruction events And they are essential to discover and study this elusive class of black holes, which stands halfway between Star Black holesproduced by supernovae, and supermaxicci black holes in the center of galaxies.
What do the images of Hubble and Chandra show: the video
The cover image was obtained through the combination of data of the Hubble space telescopesensitive to wavelengths visibleand data of the Chandra space telescopewhich instead is able to capture the X -rays coming from the most energetic processes of the universe. The optical image of Hubble shows the pair of galaxies NGC 6099 (at the bottom left) e NGC 6098 (top right), located a 412 million years-light from the earth in the direction of the constellation of Hercules. The two galaxies are gradually linked each other and belong to the class of elliptical galaxiesellipsoidal objects that have sput to form new stars For hundreds of millions or even billions of years, which makes them dominated by stars of mass similar to the sun, since the most massive ones have already disappeared exploding in the supernovae.
There purple light which can be seen in the image, on the other hand, represents theemission in X -rays detected by the Chandra space telescope. In the image it is possible to note two types of purple light: one more widespread emissioncoming from the central regions of the two galaxies, and one more concentrated of spheroidal formhowever, coming from the extreme suburbs of NGC 6099. The widespread emission is generated by Gas at temperatures of millions of degrees present in the elliptical galaxies, while the spheroidal one comes from a starsinside which there is a Black Black In Intermedia caught in the act of shred A star pushed too close to his horizon of events.
The video above shows a reconstruction of this violent process, known as Mareal destruction event. The immense gravitational field of the black hole produces a space of spaghettiation in the unfortunate star. The sea forces they make the star to shredly, producing a flow of material which wraps around the black hole. This material forms a growth disc that in spiraling towards the horizon of the events of the black hole it reaches temperatures Like this high (about 3 million degrees) to be issued X -raysprecisely those detected by the Chandra telescope. The black hole NGC 6099 HLX-1 It is found in a stellar cluster a 40000 years-lights from the Center of the Galaxy NGC 6099. Here the stars are so close to each other that they only distant a few light months from each other (about 800 billion kilometers), thus providing the black hole a large quantity of stars on which to ban.
The black intermediate mass holes must be caught on the fact
Exist Different types of black holes in the universe. THE stellar black holes They are produced by collapse of stars of mass exceeding about 20 times that of our sun, which end their life in violent explosions of supernova. At the opposite extreme we have instead i Supermassicci black holesobjects from one million up to one billion solar masses, which lie in the center of the galaxies, including our Milky Way. Between these two categories are placed i black intermediate mass holeswhose mass varies from hundreds of up to 100,000 solar masses. The black intermediate mass holes are fundamental to study because according to scientists are The seeds for the formation of even larger black holes. This would happen through merger processes, similar to those that produce massive galaxies starting from smaller objects.
Star black holes are identifiable thanks to the powerful explosions of supernovae, while supermaxicci have gigantic gase growth discs that spirals towards the horizon of events, producing light emission from the gamma rays to radio waves. THE black intermediate mass holeson the other hand, are often invisible Astronomes since they do not swallow as both gases and stars and supermaxicci, thus producing a very weak light emission. To be found, they must be caught on the fact while looking for food. When they occasionally devour an unfortunate star thrust, in what astronomers call an event of sea destruction, they emit a copious quantity of electromagnetic radiation that makes them detectable to our tools.
