Astronomers in the US have found a new type of black hole which belongs to a previously missing class of the mysterious space objects. The researchers from Ohio State University discovered a black hole which is only 3.3 times the mass of a Sun, according to the research published in the journal Science. It had been thought that a star would need to have a minimum of roughly five to seven times the mass of the Sun to form a black hole when it eventually reaches the end of its cycle and collapses in on itself.
Anything smaller than five times the mass of our host star, down to around twice as big, usually becomes a neutron star when it dies – something which astronomers class as a stellar zombie.
However, with the discovery of a black hole which is relatively small by the mysterious entities usually massive standards could completely rewrite how the science community understands the life cycle of a star.
The study’s lead author Todd Thompson, professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University, said: “We’re showing this hint that there is another population out there that we have yet to really probe in the search for black holes.
“People are trying to understand supernova explosions, how supermassive black stars explode, how the elements were formed in supermassive stars.
“So if we could reveal a new population of black holes, it would tell us more about which stars explode, which don’t, which form black holes, which form neutron stars. It opens up a new area of study.
“What we’ve done here is come up with a new way to search for black holes, but we’ve also potentially identified one of the first of a new class of low-mass black holes that astronomers hadn’t previously known about.
“The masses of things tell us about their formation and evolution, and they tell us about their nature.”
Black holes can be phenomenally big.
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Another way is when a large amount of matter, which can be in the form of a gas cloud or a star collapses in on itself through its own gravitational pull.
Finally, the collision of two neutron stars can cause a black hole.
The gist of all three ways is that a massive amount of mass located in one spot can cause a black hole.