Scientists Spot Rare 'In Between' Black Hole

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have found a doomed star orbiting what appears to be a medium-sized black hole. This black hole appears to be a theorized 'in-between' category of black hole that has eluded confirmation and frustrated scientists for more than a decade."

slightly OT

[no reason to be here]

OK, this question just occured to me. I'm sure there is an obvious answer that I am overlooking.

How do/did the heaviest elements, which are/were formed in the largest stars, escape from those stars that ultimately become/became neutron stars and black holes? I know that elements are flung out from the star via super novae, but wouldn't the heaviest elements be at the core of the star that remains? how would they get out? Shouldn't they all be trapped in the stellar remnants?

Ah what a body of work the universe is

[99luftballon]

The more we see the more we can understand, and the more questions occur.

Given the possible variation in black hole sizes this poses some interesting problems for long term space travel. Mini-holes will pose major danger during high speed travel unless some fast detection method is found. This has resonances with Arthur C Clarke's story about the star mangled spanner...

The abstract

[2008]

The ultraluminous x-ray source (ULX) in M82 has been identified as a possible intermediate mass black hole formed in stellar collisions in the super star cluster MGG 11. We find that the x-ray flux from M82 is modulated with a peak to peak amplitude corresponding to an isotropic luminosity of 2.4 x 10^40 erg s-1 in M82 and a period of 62.0 ± 2.5 days, which we interpret as the orbital period of the ULX binary. This orbital period implies that the mass donor star must be a giant or supergiant. Large mass transfer rates, sufficient to fuel the ULX, are expected for a giant phase mass donor in an x-ray binary. The giant phase has a short life time, indicating that we see the ULX in M82 in a brief and unusual period of its evolution.

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Reading this and the article, I'm not sure if the claim is necessarily valid. What's to stop this being a smaller black hole, a smaller star orbiting closer (with the same period), and beamed emission? An intermediate black hole is still the simplest explanation, but doesn't seem unique.

Re:Wow.

[tloh]

This gas isn't inside the black hole, so light can still get out. Once it falls into the black hole, no more light comes from it, but before then, there is usually a lot of light.

A thought just occured to me. They say nothing can escape from a black hole due to it's huge gravity. Not even light. We know photons are the carriers of the electromagnetic force, one of the 4 fundamental forces in nature. I believe we have identified the carriers of the nuclear strong force and the nuclear weak force as well. But the suposed graviton has remained elusive and unidentified. By their very nature, though, shouldn't we be able to conclude that in order for black holes to generate such intense gravitational fields, they must allow their own gravitons to interact with nearby objects? In other words, the carriers for the force of gravity must be allowed to escape the black hole in order to exert that very force. Wait a minute....I can't be saying that right. Let's try again, suppose communication through an event horizon is possible - with gravity waves.

?????

Profit?

Heavier elements

[rcamans]

Elements heavier than iron consume more energy in their creation than their fusion process gives off. But that does not mean that they are not formed in a normal star's process. It just means that only a little of them are formed in a star's normal process. Stars do not fuse elements that produce energy in fusion, they fuse elements. The primary star energy is from hydrogen and helium fusion. The neutron flux, as well as the rest of the atoms hitting one another, can result in fusion. if two atoms hit each other in a way that will result in fusion, then they fuse. There are not a lot of iron atoms moving around fast enough to fuse with neutrons, hydrogen or helium, and some of the isotopes formed are radioactive. Since this is all going on in the core of the star, we will not see much evidence of it.

Re:Wow.

[HiThere]

I believe that Hawking gave up on that proposition, and that it is now accepted that information DOES come back out of a black hole. And that the Hawking radiation isn't random, but is a result of the information previously fed into it. According to this theory (which I believe to be current orthodoxy) Hawking radiation is no more random than is /dev/random...and no less. Saying it isn't truly random doesn't mean that you can usefully predict it.

Just Wondering

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens when two black holes collide?

A little bit wrong

[MrNougat]

A black hole is an object so dense and with a gravitational force so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull once within its boundary.

Actually, I believe Hawking determined that information [physicsweb.org] could escape from a black hole. So that means that something [wikipedia.org] can escape, as opposed to nothing.

Re:Wow.

[whorfin]

I am not a physicist, but it appears that Hawking has changed his tune on "nothing comes out of a black hole". He now agrees with Preskill that information can come out of a black hole, riding as a signal on the Hawking radiation. In fact, he paid up a bet he made back in the late 90s.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=3607084 [npr.org]