Black Hole in Globular Cluster

Black Hole in Globular Cluster

X-Ray Data Indicates Black Hole Centered in Globular Cluster

A team of astronomers at the center of astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has found evidence for a massive black hole in the center of the globular cluster NGC – 6624, about 15,000 light-years away. The astronomers estimate the black hole’s mass is 1,000 times that of the sun.

Analyzing the x-ray data gathered by the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite launched in 1975, the researchers found that the center of the cluster emitted two very intense x-ray bursts in March and September of that year. The x-ray energy given off during the bursts was a million times greater than the total light generated by the sun.

Present theories suggest that x-rays are produced in a close binary system in which one member is either a neutron star or a black hole. When the “normal” star swells into a red giant, some of its material escapes and spirals down onto its invisible companion. The already hot material gains more energy as it spirals, eventually becoming hot enough to emit x-rays before disappearing into the black hole.

Black Hole. Author: Alain r.

Globular clusters are very densely packed groups of up to a million stars each, situated around the outskirts of the galaxy. Probably as old as the Milky Way, they lack interstellar dust of gas; both have long since been incorporated into stars. The centers of globular clusters are so packed with stars that astronomers cannot distinguish individual stars.

Since globular clusters are so old, and very massive stars that originally were present would have long since completed their evolution to neutron stars of black holes. Over the cons, they would capture and fuse any field stars that approached too closely. A supermassive black hole might be built up in this way.