Astronomers at Ohio University have discovered an object that is likely a black hole with a mass 3.3 times that of the Sun.
Scientists have potentially identified an object belonging to an entirely new class of black holes. Image: Space.
Scientists have found evidence that suggests there may be a new type of black hole in the universe that humans have never explored before, said Todd Thompson, the lead author of the study. If this object is confirmed, current scientific theories about the universe will need to incorporate this new type of black hole, changing our understanding of how stars and other celestial bodies are born and die.
Black holes can form when a dead star collapses and explodes, creating a region of gravity so strong that not even light can escape. They can appear at the centers of galaxies and act like colossal engines. However, this doesn’t always happen. Some dead stars become neutron stars, compact objects that are small but incredibly dense.
Black holes typically have masses ranging from 5 to 15 times that of the Sun, or even larger. In contrast, neutron stars have masses only about 2 times that of the Sun. If they are larger than 2.5 times the mass of the Sun, neutron stars can collapse and become black holes.
Thompson and his colleagues were puzzled by the significant difference in size between the largest neutron stars and the smallest black holes. They studied data from APOGEE, a program that observes the light of 100,000 stars in the Milky Way.
They discovered a red giant star orbiting a peculiar object that appeared much smaller than the black holes in the Milky Way but significantly larger than a typical neutron star. Ultimately, scientists believe this object is likely a black hole with a mass only 3.3 times that of the Sun.
“If we can find new classes of black holes, we can learn more about which stars explode, which ones don’t, which ones make black holes, and which ones make neutron stars. This will open up a new field of study,” Thompson noted.