Astronomers re-use the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) NASA, in observing objects in the sky. This time, a black hole has been successful in detection with an eccentricity. The discovery is fairly rare, because the observed black hole has issued a jet the blaze.
"Imagine what it would be like if our sun were to undergo a sudden, random explosions, being three times brighter in a matter of hours and then fade back again. That kind of anger that we observed in this jet," said Poshak Gandhi, a scientist with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He is lead author of a recent study on the results appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "With WISE infrared vision, we are able to zoom in on the area near the base of the jet in stellar-mass black hole for the first time and observing the physics of jets in action."
The black hole is named GX 339-4, located 20,000 light years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way. Its mass 6 times the mass of the sun. Previously black hole is a star, the remaining fuel is then transformed into a heavier elements, like iron. As a result, the mass of the star is getting bigger, and gravity are also getting bigger. Because of the strong gravitational pull of black holes, the light that has sucked, can not get out of it. A black hole can be orbit because there is another star with him. Most of the material from the companion star was sucked by a black hole. Some of the material sucked was exploding like a jet flow moving at speeds nearing the speed of light. A black hole having magnetic field 30000 more stronger than the earth.
The video above showing what WISE see. WISE images showing strong bursts and dimming of infrared light in the black hole GX 339-4. The data cover a period of approximately 1 day, speeded up. Infrared light has a wavelength about 15 times longer than the eye can see.
"To see bright flaring activity from a black hole, you need to be looking at the right place at the right time," said Peter Eisenhardt, the project scientist for WISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "WISE snapped sensitive infrared pictures every 11 seconds for a year, covering the whole sky, allowing it to catch this rare event."
Data from WISE will help the astronomers for learn flaring jet of black hole more accurate.
Reprinted from NASA: NASA's WISE Mission Captures Black Hole's Wildly Flaring Jet
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