Black Hole

In News

• Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared an audio clip of a supermassive black hole located 250 million light-years away.
  • The black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound since 2003. 

About Black hole 

• About: 
  • A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot escape. 
  • The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying.
• Visibility: 
  • Because no light can get out, they are invisible. 
  • Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. 
  • The gasses swirling around actually help in getting their images.
• How Big Are Black Holes?
  • Black holes can be big or small. 
  • Scientists think the smallest black holes are as small as just one atom. These black holes are very tiny but have the mass of a large mountain. 
  • Another kind of black hole is called “stellar.” Its mass can be up to 20 times more than the mass of the sun. 
  • The largest black holes are called ‘supermassive’ and they have masses that are more than 1 million suns together. 
  • SgrA*
    • The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A.
    • It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a very large ball that could hold a few million Earths.
•  How Do Black Holes Form?
  • Scientists think the smallest black holes formed when the universe began.
  • Stellar black holes are made when the center of a very big star falls in upon itself or collapses. When this happens, it causes a supernova. A supernova is an exploding star that blasts part of the star into space.
  • Scientists think supermassive black holes were made at the same time as the galaxy they are in.

Significance of the recent findings 

• Insight into space exploration: The sound extracted from a black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster gives us new insight into space exploration and research. 
• It is a popular misconception that there is no sound in space: It originates from the fact that most space is essentially a vacuum, providing no medium for sound waves to propagate through.
  • A galaxy cluster has copious amounts of gas that envelop the hundreds or even thousands of galaxies within it, providing a medium for the sound waves to travel.

Source: DTE