Monster Black Hole Busts Theory 248
Genocaust writes "A stellar black hole much more massive than theory predicts is possible has astronomers puzzled. Stellar black holes form when stars with masses around 20 times that of the sun collapse under the weight of their own gravity at the ends of their lives. Most stellar black holes weigh in at around 10 solar masses when the smoke blows away, and computer models of star evolution have difficulty producing black holes more massive than this. The newly weighed black hole is 16 solar masses. It orbits a companion star in the spiral galaxy Messier 33, located 2.7 million light-years from Earth. Together they make up the system known as M33 X-7."
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:5, Informative)
Super-massive black holes like what exist at the center of a galaxy don't have a well understood origin, but it is supposed that if a black hole is created in a region of space with a great deal of matter in the vicinity, it may gobble up a lot of it, adding to its mass until it becomes super-massive.
A stellar black hole that's so big it shouldn't be possible for it to have been created by the usual supernova, and in a region of space sufficiently vacant to rule out the gobbling theory, is what is being puzzled over.
Pairs don't merge very often (Score:5, Informative)
Further, large stars have short lives, meaning that the time for friction to rub them closer to each other is shorter.
However, it is true that a collision of two big mid-life stars may itself trigger a supernova because the total mass exceeds a stable size, and thus a very large black hole is formed. This may result in a black hole that *looks* like it came from a star larger than the max stable size of a star because its exceeding the stable limit itself is what triggered the formation of the hole. In short, there may be a limit to stable star size, but not to unstable star size.
Re:x-rays aren't light? Or... wait a sec! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:x-rays aren't light? Or... wait a sec! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Supermassive black holes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Computer models of Supernovae (Score:2, Informative)
I'm well aware that a lot of the information that astrophysicists want to know have huge uncertainties. I'm involved in making those measurements.