Call it a gut response. The revolutionary discovery of space-time ripple may contain come from two black holes colliding while inside it a gut reaction. The revolutionary discovery of space-time ripples may have come from two black holes colliding while within the belly of an enormous star, whose succeeding fall down launched powerful jets of gamma rays.
Scientists already know that the gravitational waves detected by (LIGO), the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, were generate when 2 black holes – each about Thirty times as enormous as the sun – spiralled about each other and merged.
Scientists already know that the gravitational waves detected by (LIGO), the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, were generate when 2 black holes – each about Thirty times as enormous as the sun – spiralled about each other and merged.
However now it seems that collision may have been followed by a bright burst of gamma rays. NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope detected such an eruption just 0.4 seconds after LIGO’s gravitational waves arrived at Earth. It’s not obvious whether the same event triggered both signals, but the Fermi team calculate that the probability of a coincidence was just (0.0022).
The trouble is that no one probable such a dazzling gamma-ray burst to accompany a black-hole merger. Coalescing black holes orbit each other in a cosmic do-Si-do, clearing out a region of empty space. According to models of gamma-ray bursts, isolated black holes can’t ignite them.
“Everything smells like a short y gamma-ray burst in our signal,” says Valerie Connaught on of the Fermi team. “And that’s a real problem in a way – you don’t expect this signal from merging black holes.”
But when Avi Loeb of Harvard University saw the Fermi results, he realized he knew what might be occurrence. You could get a gamma-ray burst if the 2 black holes were envelop in a very massive star. “It’s sort of like a pregnant woman with twins in her stomach,” he says. Once the black holes merged, the star would collapse and trigger intense beams of gamma rays.
For that to occur, the two black holes would have to contain formed in an enormously massive star a few 100 times heftier than the sun. As the star exhausted its nuclear fuel, its core began to collapse. Normally that would form a single black hole.
But if the star were turning very fast, centrifugal force would stretch the collapsing core, shaping it into a dumbbell. Ultimately, the dumbbell would snap into two cores, each of which would continue to collapse into its own black hole.
The trouble is that no one probable such a dazzling gamma-ray burst to accompany a black-hole merger. Coalescing black holes orbit each other in a cosmic do-Si-do, clearing out a region of empty space. According to models of gamma-ray bursts, isolated black holes can’t ignite them.
“Everything smells like a short y gamma-ray burst in our signal,” says Valerie Connaught on of the Fermi team. “And that’s a real problem in a way – you don’t expect this signal from merging black holes.”
But when Avi Loeb of Harvard University saw the Fermi results, he realized he knew what might be occurrence. You could get a gamma-ray burst if the 2 black holes were envelop in a very massive star. “It’s sort of like a pregnant woman with twins in her stomach,” he says. Once the black holes merged, the star would collapse and trigger intense beams of gamma rays.
For that to occur, the two black holes would have to contain formed in an enormously massive star a few 100 times heftier than the sun. As the star exhausted its nuclear fuel, its core began to collapse. Normally that would form a single black hole.
But if the star were turning very fast, centrifugal force would stretch the collapsing core, shaping it into a dumbbell. Ultimately, the dumbbell would snap into two cores, each of which would continue to collapse into its own black hole.
Comments
Post a Comment