Astronomers have recently found hundreds of black holes which were apparently hidden. This finding has been made possible with the help of data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The most controversial phenomenon, which is the black holes as can be seen in the analysis, are supermassive in nature and can pile up billions of suns in them.
As per a report by NASA, the information was acquired by a team from the Chandra Source Catalogue while the optical data has been combined from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The data in turn identified several black holes which were otherwise hidden.
For all those wondering, a black hole is created when the centre of a very massive star collapses upon itself, as NASA has quoted. The black hole is made up of such a high gravitational field that the matter gets squeezed into the small space under it, which in turn traps the light of the dead star. Gravity is so strong that it causes the matter to get squeezed into a tiny space. As no light is able to get out, people can’t see black holes.
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As per the report of NASA, Dong-Woo Kim of the Center for Astrophysics, who led the study, said, “Astronomers have already identified huge numbers of black holes, but many remain elusive. Our research has uncovered a missing population and helped us understand how they are behaving.”
How was the data acquired?
As per reports, the team efficiently combed through the data which they acquired from Chandra Source Catalogue and saw 817 XBONG candidates which was ten times the number, even before the Chandra was in operation.
NASA said that because of the sharp images which were captured, it matched the quality of that of SDSS. They even mentioned that a large amount of data was captured from Chandra Source Catalogue which made it possible to detect these many candidates.
What happened next?
The study of the X-rays by researchers showed that the materials swirling around a black hole are superheated to millions of degrees and glow strongly in X-ray wavelengths. After studying them, the team concluded that about half of the XBONG candidates involved X-ray sources which were buried under thick gas.
Commenting on the studies, co-author Amanda Malnati said, “These results show how powerful it is to compare X-ray and optical data mines. The Chandra Source Catalog is a growing treasure that will help astronomers make discoveries for years to come.”
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