Mystery Object Survives Black Hole

[Rhykker]

Mystery Object Survives Black Hole

Astronomers were surprised to learn that the mysterious object they named G2 that passed by the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy wasn't destroyed.

G2 was previously believed to have been a cloud of hydrogen gas, but given it wasn't destroyed by the close approach to the black hole [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/black%20hole], astronomers now believe it may actually be a pair of stars that collided to form one giant star surrounded by a haze of gas and dust.

"G2 survived and continues happily on its orbit; a gas cloud would not do that," said UCLA astronomer Andrea Ghez. "G2 was completely unaffected by the black hole; no fireworks."

The "fireworks" that Ghez is referring to would have resulted from the tearing apart of the hydrogen gas cloud by the black hole's intense gravity - an event that would have actually changed the state of the black hole.

Given these new findings, G2 may actually be an example of a newly-discovered class of stellar objects: binary stars that merge due to proximity to black holes.

"We're seeing a new class of stars near the black hole, and as a consequence of the black hole," Ghez said. "It's possible that many of the stars we've been watching and not understanding may be the end product of mergers that are calm now."

Hawaii's Keck Observatory collected the observations on G2, and the findings were published on Monday in the Astrophysical Journal [http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/796/1/L8/article].

A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole and has a mass hundreds of thousands of times greater than our Sun. It is believed that all galaxies may contain a supermassive black hole at their center, including our Milky Way [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/milky%20way] galaxy.


Source: Science World Report [http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/mysterious-g2-object-identified-after-surviving-black-hole-n240356]

Permalink

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I really get the feeling there's not enough information in this article. What I initially got was "these things defy the laws of physics and laugh in the face of supermassive black holes!", but now it appears to be "we thought it was a cloud, apparently it's at least millions of times denser than that".

That said, I want to know what makes a "binary stars that combine" any different from regular stars in terms of present functionality. I assume they'd be bigger, but it's not like star size is standard for all normal stars.

 

[FalloutJack]

This G2 sounds like it could be a super-dense object in of itself, thanks to that effect. Yet, I can't conceive of it happening without that all-important cocktail of burnable elements being disrupted massively and therefore burning quicker or more immediately.

Any indicator on whether it was sling-shot around by the black hole? Or was it literally unaltered in any way at all?

 

[Albino Boo]

This G2 sounds like it could be a super-dense object in of itself, thanks to that effect. Yet, I can't conceive of it happening without that all-important cocktail of burnable elements being disrupted massively and therefore burning quicker or more immediately.

Any indicator on whether it was sling-shot around by the black hole? Or was it literally unaltered in any way at all?

What's happened is what they thought was a gas cloud is a gas is in fact a gas cloud with star in the middle. The expected a gas cloud that close to a black hole to be ripped apart but all that has happen is the cloud has got stretched indicating that that there is large star in the centre. At the centre of the galaxy the average star is a large and part of a binary system. What is thought now, it that those large stars were formed by smaller stars being merged by the gravity of the black hole. Those large binaries had been observed but they couldn't find a model for why they exist in those numbers.

The outer layers of the star of have been heated and stretched. As its path carries it away form the blackhole, the star should settle down again in a million years or so.

 

[xXGeckoXx]

This G2 sounds like it could be a super-dense object in of itself, thanks to that effect. Yet, I can't conceive of it happening without that all-important cocktail of burnable elements being disrupted massively and therefore burning quicker or more immediately.

Any indicator on whether it was sling-shot around by the black hole? Or was it literally unaltered in any way at all?

What's happened is what they thought was a gas cloud is a gas is in fact a gas cloud with star in the middle. The expected a gas cloud that close to a black hole to be ripped apart but all that has happen is the cloud has got stretched indicating that that there is large star in the centre. At the centre of the galaxy the average star is a large and part of a binary system. What is thought now, it that those large stars were formed by smaller stars being merged by the gravity of the black hole. Those large binaries had been observed but they couldn't find a model for why they exist in those numbers.

The outer layers of the star of have been heated and stretched. As its path carries it away form the blackhole, the star should settle down again in a million years or so.

Indeed. I think the note being that a dispersed cloud will enter orbit of the black hole and will stretch over a large area and thus parts will be closer while others are further and it will experience significant distortion. A denser object occupies less space and the differential would be smaller

Edit: So basically reading the abstract they observed a smaller tidal interaction in a gas cloud passing a black hole and thus corrected their model to the idea that it is a denser object, potentially as dense as a star or with a star at the centre.

The title "OBJECT SURVIVES BLACK HOLE" is sensationalized and based on the incorrect idea that black holes work like a vacuum and "destroy" any entity that gets too close. How the escapist published this escapes me...

 

[the December King]

The title "OBJECT SURVIVES BLACK HOLE" is sensationalized and based on the incorrect idea that black holes work like a vacuum and "destroy" any entity that gets too close.

This may display my ignorance, but I was under the impression that this is what a super massive black hole, or indeed any singularity, would do when matter passed sufficiently close to the event horizon (at least for all intents and purposes), or at last that it would begin siphoning off outer layers of material?

 

[Albino Boo]

The title "OBJECT SURVIVES BLACK HOLE" is sensationalized and based on the incorrect idea that black holes work like a vacuum and "destroy" any entity that gets too close.

This may display my ignorance, but I was under the impression that this is what a super massive black hole, or indeed any singularity, would do when matter passed sufficiently close to the event horizon (at least for all intents and purposes), or at last that it would begin siphoning off outer layers of material?

The black hole would have pulled a gas cloud apart, however this gas cloud had a large star at the centre. This stars gravity was strong enough to stop the surrounding gas cloud being pulled apart. If the star with gas cloud in it was closer, it would have been pulled in.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The relationship between dense matter in space is always interesting to read up on but research is quite slow on it. Just a lot of calculations I imagine. Still, I find this radical! Two thumbs up for merging stars. ^.^

 

[L. Declis]

Ah, a clickbaity title.

How very lazy of you.

Seriously, if you can't find a way to sell perfectly interesting news without half-lying about it, then give the article to someone else.

------------------------------------------------------------

On the actual topic, cool.

Stars are cool.

Physics continues as it does.

Came here hoping for something REALLY interesting, but was let down due to sensationalist title and lukewarm material in comparison.

 

[Remus]

It's coming.

Spoiler

My running theory on this is that an event of this nature could mark middle age for our galaxy, wherein the stars near its center become large enough to not be disrupted by the supermassive black hole. This could start a trend working in the reverse, when the gravitational pull of the surrounding stars could affect the spiral of our galaxy, possibly pulling it apart as they move away from the center. There was the story about a supermassive black hole, absent of stars cannibalizing galaxies as it treks through the universe, which could be the end result of this process.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

There is no such thing as a black hole.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

binary stars are nice and all, but I expected something cooler, like neutron stars...

 

[Kameburger]

Galactus perhaps? Has no one considered the devour-er of worlds?

 

[Olas]

I think "hundreds of thousands of times greater" is a bit of an understatement actually, more like hundreds of billions times greater. SMBH's are supposed to have the mass roughly proportional to the entire galaxy that surrounds them.

 

[Michael Tabbut]

It's coming.

Spoiler

My running theory on this is that an event of this nature could mark middle age for our galaxy, wherein the stars near its center become large enough to not be disrupted by the supermassive black hole. This could start a trend working in the reverse, when the gravitational pull of the surrounding stars could affect the spiral of our galaxy, possibly pulling it apart as they move away from the center. There was the story about a supermassive black hole, absent of stars cannibalizing galaxies as it treks through the universe, which could be the end result of this process.

I'd wager it's this fucker!

Spoiler

Behold the horror that is the Hellstar Remina! Lo and behold as it comes down from beyond the boundries of space and time to devour the world like an all consuming juggernaut! The ravenous will of Azathoth made manifest! All hail the Great Old Ones! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Cosmic Horror be my shit, son!

OT click-bait title aside the implications of this does make me wonder if that was the being I linked in the image.

 

[Something Amyss]

This may display my ignorance, but I was under the impression that this is what a super massive black hole, or indeed any singularity, would do when matter passed sufficiently close to the event horizon (at least for all intents and purposes), or at last that it would begin siphoning off outer layers of material?

The gravitational effects of a black hole are felt beyond the event horizon. My reading on this event has been limited but it looks to me like it didn't cross the event horizon. What they expected was for the pull to impact the gas because it wasn't being held together so much.

Gecko's explanation of "getting too close" is perhaps poorly worded, but the idea is correct. The idea that anything that gets close enough to a black hole to be affected by it will be sucked in is, I think, the issue Gecko is tackling here.

Again, I think. I don't know for sure.

 

[Something Amyss]

Galactus perhaps? Has no one considered the devour-er of worlds?

No--one expect the Devourer of Worlds!

Or was that Spam?

 

[Kameburger]

Spam and Earth are awfully similar.

Galactus perhaps? Has no one considered the devour-er of worlds?

No--one expect the Devourer of Worlds!

Or was that Spam?

I don't know if this is related but I'm pretty sure the Earth is the spam of the universe anyway so....

 

[orangeapples]

Scientists tend to have 5 things they say:

1. We have no idea what is going on.

2. This isn't what we were expecting, but this is neat.

3. We don't really know what this will do, but it should be fun.

4. Oops! uh, we brokeded it.

5. Hey, we actually fixed this one thing.


This seems like the second one.

 

[blackrave]

Shouldn't object that have strong enough gravity to resist supermassiveblackhole soo become black hole itself?