Render Posted October 11, 2012 #1 Share Posted October 11, 2012 On Sept. 16, NASA's Swift satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months. The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole. Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the center of our galaxy toward the constellation Sagittarius. While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxy's inner region. The pattern of X-rays from the nova signals that the central object is a black hole. Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light. http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011108/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpee Posted October 11, 2012 #2 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Should we be worried? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Render Posted October 11, 2012 Author #3 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Should we be worried? .... Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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