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Black Hole Glut

1 July 2020
Astronomy

A bounty of new papers on black holes has struck this month for some reason. At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-giant-black-holes-jupiter.html … to find a black hole start with Jupiter – and gravity. Or to put it in another context – to find a black hole seek out gravitational waves (the new kid on the block). Black holes, we are told, are regions of pure gravity formed from warped space time. Gravitational waves are ripples in space time. When black holes orbit each other in pairs they radiate gravitational waves that deform space time, stretching and squeezing etc.

At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-theoretical-cosmologist-large-black-holes…. … a theoretical cosmologist describes how large black holes really are – and the point of no return. He knows all about black holes and how they develop or disappear.

At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-hungriest-black-holes-massive-universe.html … the heaviest of black holes among the most massive in the universe. Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society See also https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/496/2/2309/5863959

At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-star-dies-pre-supernova-neutrinos.html … what happens before a star explodes and dies. Modelling stellar evolution. Apparently, neutrinos are the key. See https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.03124.pdf

At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-cosmic-mystery-large-telescope-captures.html … a cosmic mystery. The Very Large Telescope Array capures the disappearance of a massive star. Extinguished in a blink, so to speak. Like a light bulb turned off at the switch. What happened? Was it swallowed by a black hole?

At https://phys.org/news/2020-06-mid-infrared-flare-nearby-galaxy.html … mid-infrared flare has been detected in a nearby galaxy. See https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.11963.pdf Chinese astronomers report on the discovery of a mid infrared flare. What was responsible? The authors of the paper explore what they think it is, and what caused the flare. A dust echo. The re-radiation of dust heated up by UV optical radiation from a nuclear transient event. Modelling was used.

See also https://phys.org/news/2020-07-maximum-mass-massive-black-holes.html … researchers claim to have found the origin of the maximum mass of massive black holes.

and at https://phys.org/news/2020-07-coronae-supermassive-black-holes-hidden.html … the coronae of supermassive black holes may be the hidden source of mysterious cosmic neutrinos on earth

Just in case these are not enough, on the very next day we have another – see https://phjys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-rapid-black-hole-gamma-ray.html … scientists detect rapid changes in a black hole that may explain gamma ray bursts. We are told that magnetic processes are originating in very small and turbulent regions, just as the main model of gamma ray production in black holes predicts.

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