- Polish astronomers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw participated in the research
- Gaia BH3W is the third such object (dormant black hole) discovered, and it is the object that broke the record in the entire galaxy.
- Interestingly, this discovery was accidental and was made while validating data for the catalog of the next Gaia mission
- The previous record holder for the largest mass in the Milky Way was the black hole in the X-ray binary system Cygnus X-1, which has a mass of about 20 times that of the Sun.
- The typical mass of stellar black holes in our galaxy is about 10 solar masses
- Astronomers now face a difficult task: trying to explain the origins of large black holes like Gaia BH3
The vast majority of the dozens of known stellar black holes are found in binary star systems. These systems emit X-rays, which are associated with the star's loss of material when it is absorbed by the black hole. However, if the black hole did not have such a nearby star, we would not observe any radiation. Hence, it would be difficult to find such an inert black hole.
However, scientists from the Gaia space observatory managed to do this. The third such object (a dormant black hole) has already been discovered, which is a record in the entire galaxy.
Accidental discovery
Interestingly, this discovery was accidental and was made while validating data for the catalog of the next Gaia mission. Given the importance of the discovery and the fact that the catalog is scheduled to be published in 2025 at the earliest, it was decided to publish the results of analyzes based on preliminary data earlier.
Scientists have analyzed the behavior of an ancient, bright star in the constellation Vulture, 1,926 light-years away. Based on its orbital motion, it was determined that it was in a binary system with a very high-mass inert black hole, It was determined to be 33 times more massive than the Sun. It was called Gaia BH3.
Gaia BH3 is the new Milky Way record holder
This result is a record among stellar black holes in the Milky Way. The previous record holder was a black hole in an X-ray binary system cygnus x-1, With a mass about 20 times greater than the mass of the Sun. while The typical mass of black holes of stellar origin in our Galaxy is about 10 solar masses.
Dr. Pascual Panozzo from the Paris Observatory (France), who led the research, noted that a scientist makes this kind of discovery once in his entire life.
— 30 times more massive than the Sun. We see typical results for measurements of the masses of very distant black holes observed through gravitational wave experiments. The Gaia measurements constitute the first conclusive evidence of the existence of such heavy black holes, the professor explains in a statement sent to PAP. Łukasz Wyrzykowski from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw has been a member of the Gaia team since 2008 and belongs to the Special Group on Black Holes.
Where did Gaia BH3 come from?
Astronomers now face a difficult task: testing Explaining the origin of Gaia BH3-sized black holes.
According to prevailing theories, as massive stars evolve, they lose much of their material through strong stellar winds and the ejection of some of the material during supernova explosions. What's left of the star's core shrinks and turns into a black hole or neutron star (the mass is decided here). It is very difficult to explain the existence of a remnant large enough to produce a black hole with a mass 33 times greater than the mass of the Sun.
The star itself orbiting Gaia BH3 is also interesting. It orbits the black hole at a distance 16 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, with a period of 11.6 years. This star is a giant, formed in the first 2 billion years after the Big Bang. At that time, the Milky Way was just forming. The star has very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium (called metals in astronomical terms), and since stars in binary systems usually have the same composition, this suggests that the star that generated the black hole was also low in metals.
– Surprisingly, the chemical composition of the companion is similar to that of ancient, metal-poor stars in the Galaxy – explains Dr. Milena Ratajczak from the OA UW, a member of the Gaia Consortium, quoted in the statement.
This is the first confirmation of the idea that the high-mass black holes observed in gravitational wave experiments arose from the collapse of primordial massive stars that lacked heavy elements. Such objects may have evolved differently from the massive stars found in the Milky Way today.
Gaia is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA). Its primary function is to measure distances to many stars in order to prepare a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way. At the same time, scientists use the collected data to conduct research on many other issues in astronomy, an example of which is the discovery described.
To confirm this discovery, the researchers used data from ground-based observatories: the UVES spectrograph on the VLT telescope in Chile (European Southern Observatory), and the HERMES spectrometer on the Mercator telescope in La Palma in Spain (operated by the University of Leuven in Belgium, in cooperation with the University of Geneva Observatory in Switzerland), the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Hautes-Provence Observatory in France (operated by the OSU Institut Pythéas).
The results of the research were published on Tuesday in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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