Millions of High-Speed Black Holes Zooming Around Milky Way After Being Kicked At Birth: Theory

Black holes are a region of space-time exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it. In the space, black holes are one of the most complex entities. Recently, astronomers have found another supermassive black hole named as Sagittarius A* that is clocking in at 4 million times the mass of the Sun. And now, a theory has come up stating that when a massive star collapses upon itself — a supernova — the explosion is so huge that a black hole is born. 

A study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society states that that not only are black holes born in supernova explosions but some explosions are so huge that they kick the black holes across the galaxy. Travelling at speeds of up to 252,000 kilometres per hour, there might be millions of high speed black holes moving about the Milky Way. 

It is worth mentioning here that the study was based on 16 black holes in binary systems.

Also Read: Asteroid Alert! Here’s How Giant Space Rocks Hurtling Towards Earth Can Be DESTROYED, Details Inside

Also Read: Asteroid Alert: Earth Will '100 Per Cent Be Hit' By Killer Space Rock, Says Scientist 

"This work basically talks about the first observational evidence that you can actually see black holes moving with high velocities in the galaxy and associate it to the kick the black hole system received at birth," astronomer Pikky Atri of Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) told ScienceAlert. 

"We tracked how these systems were moving in our galaxy - so, figured out their velocities today, moved back in time, and tried to understand what the velocity was of the system when it was born, individually for each of these 16 systems," Atri added. "Based on the velocities, you can actually find out if they were born with a supernova explosion, or if the stars just directly collapsed onto themselves without a supernova explosion," the astronomer concluded. 

RELATED