Nov 19 2002
From The Space Library
Astronomers discovered a phenomenon that they had previously postulated in theory, but had never actually observed~ a black hole in motion, likely propelled by the explosion of a supernova. Using the HST, I. Felix Mirabel, of France's Atomic Energy Commission and Argentina's Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics, and other scientists had determined that the black hole GRO J1655-40 was traveling toward Earth at approximately 250,000 miles per hour (400,000 kilometers per hour) as it consumed a companion star locked in gravitational orbit around the black hole. Although astronomers could not observe the black hole directly, they were able to infer its velocity, orbit, and other characteristics by observing its companion star and the effects of the black hole's immense gravity on that star. The scientists were able to use the calculations of the black hole's velocity and orbit to determine that a supernova explosion was most likely the event that had propelled the black hole into motion. (William Harwood, “Black Hole's Velocity Links It to Supernova,” Washington Post, 19 November 2002; I. F. Mirabel et al., “The Runaway Black Hole GRO J1655-40,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 395, no. 2 (19 November 2002): 595-599.)
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