Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Image Source: NASA BY DANNY MATTESON
If you know anything about the behavior of black holes — that they suck things in and
make them disappear FOREVER — this might make you a little nervous.
NASA scientists are reporting that they have found the youngest black hole in the Milky
Way Galaxy — and, cosmically speaking, it’s not that far from Earth.
Researchers spotted the supernova remnants using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope.
Sitting about 26,000 light years away as viewed from Earth they’ve dubbed it “W49B.”
Sweet nickname, right? Well besides being both younger and closer to Earth than your
average black hole, there’s something else out of the ordinary about W498. The Verge
writes …
“... W49B is unusual. Instead of exploding symmetrically, spreading stellar material
evenly in all directions, this supernova ejected material from the poles at much higher speed,
… resulting in more of a ‘barrel-shape’ than in other supernovae.”
So how did scientists determine they were dealing with an actual black hole? RedOrbit
reports it was the lack of evidence that gave it away …
“... they found no evidence for a neutron star, which is typically left behind after
a supernova explosion. The lack of evidence implies that a black hole may have formed
instead.”
If you’re worried about W49B destroying the Earth though, just take a deep breath.
The black hole is about 26,000 light years away from Earth. For reference, the Sun is
about 8 light minutes away.