October 30, 2007
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmRecord-Setting Stellar Black Hole
For the second time in two weeks, astronomers announced they have discovered the heftiest black hole of the type that orbits another star, as opposed to the far larger monsters lurking in galactic cores.
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For the second time in two weeks, astronomers announced they have discovered the heftiest black hole of the type that orbits another star, as opposed to the far larger monsters lurking in galactic cores. The newly crowned champ (shown here stealing gas from its neighboring blue star) weighs in at somewhere between 24 and 32 solar masses, or up to twice the size of the previous record holder, a 16solar mass black hole located in the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Residing in the dwarf galaxy IC 10, 1.8 million light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, the new black hole puzzles researchers because it is thought that the kind of star that would give birth to it would not have retained enough mass to produce such a large object.
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