Is This Newly Discovered Black Hole Breaking The Rules of Stellar-Mass Limit?

In summary, astronomers have discovered a massive black hole that weighs 68 times the mass of the Sun, which goes against previous theories about the upper limit for stellar-mass black holes. There are speculations that this could be a pre-merger binary black hole or a merged black hole. However, there are also doubts about the accuracy of the measurement, and the research team is currently working on a paper to address these concerns.
  • #1
lomidrevo
433
250
TL;DR Summary
"Observations of a star have found it orbiting an unexpectedly massive black hole. If the discovery pans out, it would change our understanding of how massive stars die."
Article:
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/heavyweight-black-hole-find-mystifies-astronomers/

Astronomers have found a seemingly “impossible” black hole about 14,000 light-years away. Their observations, published in the November 28th Nature, suggest that the weird object weighs in at a staggering 68 times the mass of the Sun.

While much heftier black holes, dubbed supermassive, reside in the cores of most large galaxies, theories predict an upper limit of some 45 to 55 solar masses for a “stellar-mass” black hole that forms in the aftermath of a supernova explosion. According to Craig Wheeler (University of Texas, Austin), “This is clearly an interesting story, if verified.
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
  • #2
Most probable explanation?

Indeed, LIGO and Virgo have detected gravitational waves from the mergers of black holes of up to 50 solar masses. So the new discovery could be a pre-merger binary black hole. Or maybe the pair has already merged, although that would be unlikely, given the young age of the system — the companion star is only 35 million years old.
 
  • #4
Janus said:
Quick update on this topic. It looks like the estimation of the Black hole's size could have very well been mistaken:
https://www.space.com/monster-black...KTCnAlQHl3-_FxJA9NU5sWlIPTvpiJeDjZtSxL7RZV43E
Interesting! But possibly this is not the end of the story yet:
Space.com reached out to Liu's team for comment, and Liu said that "We are writing a paper to address all these concerns." He added that his team expects that paper to be out sometime next week.
Let's see their feedback.
 
  • #5
lomidrevo said:
Interesting! But possibly this is not the end of the story yet:

Let's see their feedback.
That's why I said "could have very well been" rather than "was".
 

1. What is the stellar-mass limit for black holes?

The stellar-mass limit for black holes is approximately 3-5 times the mass of our sun. This means that any black hole with a mass greater than this is considered a supermassive black hole.

2. How was this newly discovered black hole found?

This newly discovered black hole was found using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists observed a bright X-ray source in a nearby galaxy, which led them to the discovery of this black hole.

3. Is this black hole breaking the rules of the stellar-mass limit?

Based on current understanding, this black hole does appear to be breaking the rules of the stellar-mass limit. It has a mass of about 50 times that of our sun, which is much larger than the expected limit.

4. How could this black hole have formed with such a high mass?

There are a few theories about how this black hole could have formed with such a high mass. One possibility is that it formed through the merger of several smaller black holes. Another theory is that it may have formed from a very massive star that collapsed in a unique way.

5. What does this discovery mean for our understanding of black holes?

This discovery challenges our current understanding of black holes and their formation. It suggests that there may be other ways for black holes to form and grow beyond the stellar-mass limit. Further research and observations will be needed to fully understand the implications of this discovery.

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