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Rare X-Ray Nova Reveals a New Black Hole in the Milky Way
Swift J1745-26, with a scale of the moon as it would appear in the field of view from Earth. This image is from September 18, 2012 when the source peaked in hard X-rays. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Immler and H. Krimm
Back in mid-September, the Swift satellite was going about its multi-wavelength business of watching for bursts of bright gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, or optical events in the sky, when it detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. But this was different from any other burst the satellite had detected, and after observing the event for a few days, astronomers knew this had to be a rare X-ray nova. What it meant was that Swift had detected the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.
“Bright X-ray novae are so rare that they’re essentially once-a-mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen,” said Neil Gehrels from Goddard Space Flight Center, the mission’s principal investigator. “This is really something we’ve been waiting for.”
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Read the rest of Rare X-Ray Nova Reveals a New Black Hole in the Milky Way (687 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Black Holes, Swift Telescope, X-ray
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2012-10-05 23:07:30
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/97723/rare-x-ray-nova-reveals-a-new-black-hole-in-the-milky-way/
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