White dwarf X9: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovers star orbiting a black hole
New Delhi : Black holes in space and their mysteries have been surprising researchers in regular interval of time. In a latest, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered a star that is believed to be orbiting a black hole in nearby milky way in space.
According to a news report, the star has been seen whipping around the black hole about twice an hour and this may be the tightest orbital dance ever witnessed for a likely black hole and a companion star.
How far is this new discovery happening?
With an astonishing figure of 28 minutes per orbit, the white dwarf is at a distance about 2.5 times that of the Earth to the moon. This means the star is travelling nearly with a speed of 3.7 million miles in less than half an hour. To give a clearer picture, the speed is 100 times the speed of the Earth traveling around the sun.
About research.
A team of researchers led by Michigan State University and the University of Alberta used the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space, as well as NASA's NuSTAR space telescope, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) on the ground to make the discovery.
Earlier believed to be as stars orbiting each other, came into a different frame after X-ray fluctuations were detected in the black hole binary system, which is now called as X9.
"This white dwarf is so close to the black hole that material is being pulled away from the star and dumped onto a disk of matter around the black hole before falling in," said Arash Bahramian, lead author with the University of Alberta and MSU, in a press release.
Black Hole and its side effect
Black holes are famous for their magical power of destroying the stars due to unequal gravitational forces. But, X9 can be in relief as there are no signs of its destruction and it looks safe for now.
