Syllabus: Science and Technology
Source: IE
Context: For the first time, scientists have discovered a rare “black hole triple” system located around 8,000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. This unique configuration comprises a black hole consuming a nearby star, with another distant star orbiting the system.
About Black Hole Triple
- Definition: A “black hole triple” system consists of a black hole with two companion stars. In the discovered system, one star orbits the black hole closely, while the second star is positioned at a far greater distance, orbiting every 70,000 years.
- Discovery:
- The black hole, named V404 Cygni, was identified by researchers while examining a repository of astronomical observations.
- Located in the constellation Cygnus, V404 Cygni has a mass approximately nine times that of the Sun.
- The presence of gravitational interactions among the two stars confirmed the system’s triple configuration.
- Significance:
- Challenges traditional theories: The discovery questions the conventional understanding of black hole formation, which typically involves a supernova explosion that ejects nearby stars.
- Direct collapse formation: V404 Cygni is thought to have formed through a “direct collapse” or “failed supernova,” where the star collapsed into a black hole without an explosive event.
- Retention of nearby stars: This gentler formation process enabled the black hole to retain its nearby stars, which would have been ejected in a supernova scenario.
- Implications for binary systems: This finding suggests that some known binary black hole systems could have originally been triple systems, with the black hole later consuming one of its companions.
Insta Links:
PYQ:
- Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation? (UPSC-2019)
- ‘Higgs boson particles’ were detected
- ‘Gravitational waves’ were detected.
- Possibility of inter-galactic space travel through ‘wormhole’ was confirmed.
- It enabled the scientists to understand ‘singularity’
Answer: b)
