Black Holes and O-Stars: A Look into Galactic Chaos!

Black Holes and O-Stars: A Look into Galactic Chaos!

In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have identified a hidden population of about ten thousand smaller black holes around the supermassive black hole SgrA* at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. These results, published by a research team led by Dr. Jaroslav Haas at the University of Bonn, expand our understanding of the dynamic processes that take place in the immediate surroundings of such extreme astrophysical objects.

Directly around SgrA*, which is located about a tenth of a light-year away from the resident O-type stars, there are massive stars with more than 20 solar masses. These O-type stars only live about five million years, while the B-type stars, which are only a few solar masses heavier, can achieve significantly longer lifespans and are found near SgrA* in an age class of less than 50 million years. According to the researchers, older B-type stars are no longer visible due to the Hill's mechanism, which shot them out of the center region 100 to 200 million years ago.

The dynamics of the star population

The researchers have determined that the formation and destruction of these stars and their surroundings is influenced by collisions with the identified black holes. Collisions between these smaller black holes and O stars result in rapid destruction of the O stars, while the B stars have a longer survival period. But even these cannot survive more than 200 million years in this dangerous environment. Such findings enable new computer simulations to study the complex system of black holes and stars around SgrA* and provide valuable insights into the evolution of the stellar population.

The survival conditions of stars in this dynamic region highlight the need for further research. Astronomers now better understand how black hole density profiles change with distance from SgrA*. These density profiles result from complex dynamic processes that take place in these extreme astrophysical phenomena.

The formation of supermassive black holes

The question of how supermassive black holes form is one of the greatest challenges in modern astrophysics. Loud world of physics These massive objects have existed since the earliest days of the universe. An international team of researchers has developed computer simulations to show a new formation path that could be influenced by radiation from a neighboring galaxy. This radiation could prevent the formation of new stars in a galaxy, resulting in a direct collapse of large amounts of gas into a black hole.

Using these models, scientists expect that black holes with tens to hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the Sun can form. Within 100,000 years, these massive objects could grow to a million solar masses and reach billions of solar masses after a few hundred million years. This rapid growth could explain the large number of supermassive black holes detected in early cosmic history.

The fact that almost every galaxy hosts a central black hole with millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun underscores the importance of this research. Astronomers who previously thought that black holes grew steadily over billions of years now have new perspectives on the formation capacities of the early phase of the universe.

The findings about the “star grinder”, the phenomenon in which black holes destroy stars through collisions, lead to exciting new questions about the dynamics at the center of the Milky Way. The astronomical community hopes that future observations, perhaps from the James Webb Space Telescope, will provide new insights that could further support these theories.