(Press-News.org) Amsterdam, November 17th, 2010¬ -- Black holes, or the remnants of hyper-or supernova explosions, have intrigued scientists since the concept was first introduced in 1967. Astronomers have only ever been able to observe gamma-ray bursts, considered the births of young black holes, at far distance. Researchers have now found compelling evidence for the birth of a black hole in the so-called local Universe--representing the youngest black hole ever discovered in our cosmic neighborhood. The results of this research have been published in the most recent issue of the Elsevier journal New Astronomy vol 16 Issue 3.
Making use of archival data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, astronomers Daniel Patnaude, Avi Loeb and Christine Jones had a closer look at SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100. Earlier studies by Kasen and Bildsten (2010) and by Woosley (2010) suggested that SN 1979C, a "type IIL supernova", may have been powered by the birth of a magnetar – a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field. Observing a remarkably constant X-ray luminosity from supernova SN 1979 however, the authors propose that the late time glow of the supernova is more consistent with a stellar mass black hole accreting material from either a fallback disk or from a binary companion. They conclude that SN 1979C is likely to harbor a black hole with a mass five times that of the Sun. Furthermore, the black hole may be accreting matter from its surroundings or from a companion star.
"This is potentially a very important result. Seeing a black hole being born is exciting in its own right, but it also informs our models of how massive stars die and make supernovae. How did the implosion of the inner five solar masses of a massive star to a black hole create an explosion of the rest of the star and an extremely brilliant display, i.e. SN 1979C? Is the observed X-ray emission truly a unique signature of a black hole? We can expect to hear a lot more from the theorists on this one", says Professor Stanley Woosley, Editor of the journal New Astronomy.
Publisher of New Astronomy, Jose Stoop, also remarked, "We believe that these critical observations will help reveal which stars end up as black holes, and which ones as neutron stars. The authors suggest that this particular supernova, formed when a star about 20 times more massive than the sun collapsed, could have been right on the edge of becoming a black hole".
The data was derived from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This Observatory is part of NASA's "Great Observatories" program and was launched in 1999. The program also comprises the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the now deorbited Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. NASA has organized a press conference on November 15th 2010 to discuss the above results. The press conference was broadcasted live at NASA TV.
###
Notes to Editors: "Evidence for a possible black hole remnant in the Type IIL Supernova 1979C" New Astronomy, Volume 16, Issue 3, April 2011, Pages 187-190 by D.J. Patnaude, A. Loeb, C. Jones will be freely available for a period of three months.
About the authors
Dr. Daniel Patnaude works at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University
Prof. Avi Loeb is a Professor at the Harvard University, Department of Astronomy and is the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Dr. Christine Jones is affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
About New Astronomy
New Astronomy publishes articles in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics, with a particular focus on computational astronomy: mathematical and astronomy techniques and methodology, simulations, modeling and numerical results and computational techniques in instrumentation. The journal covers solar, stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics. It reports on original research in all wavelength bands, ranging from radio to gamma-ray.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Nov. 16, 2010 — The numerous technical and operational breakdowns that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico suggest the lack of a suitable approach for managing the inherent risks, uncertainties, and dangers associated with deepwater drilling operations and a failure to learn from previous "near misses," says an interim report of preliminary findings from a committee of the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. The events also suggest insufficient checks and balances for critical ...
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — One of biggest factors promoting the diversity of coastal ocean life is how fast the water flows, according to new research by ecologists at Brown University. Experiments and observation in Palau, Alaska, and Maine showed that the faster the flow, the greater the number of invertebrate species that live on rocks under the water.
The findings, published the week of Nov. 15 in the journal Ecology Letters, could help improve management of delicate and complex coastal ecosystems, said James Palardy, a former Brown doctoral student and ...
Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new kind of underwater sonar device that can detect objects through bubble clouds that would effectively blind standard sonar.
Just as ultrasound is used in medical imaging, conventional sonar 'sees' with sound. It uses differences between emitted sound pulses and their echoes to detect and identify targets. These include submerged structures such as reefs and wrecks, and objects, including submarines and fish shoals.
However, standard sonar does not cope well with bubble clouds resulting from breaking waves ...
Cells in the brain called pericytes that have not been high on the list of targets for treating diseases like Alzheimer's may play a more crucial role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases than has been realized.
The findings, published Nov. 4 in Neuron, cast the pericyte in a surprising new role as a key player shaping blood flow in the brain and protecting sensitive brain tissue from harmful substances. By manipulating pericyte levels, scientists were able to re-create in the brains of mice an array of abnormalities that mirror in striking fashion the brain ...
Medical websites like WebMD provide consumers with more access than ever before to comprehensive health and medical information, but the sites' utility becomes limited if users use unclear or unorthodox language to describe conditions in a site search. However, a group of Georgia Tech researchers have created a machine-learning model that enables the sites to "learn" dialect and other medical vernacular, thereby improving their performance for users who use such language themselves.
Called "diaTM" (short for "dialect topic modeling"), the system learns by comparing multiple ...
CINCINNATI—Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found a potential genetic target for heart disease, which could lead to therapies to prevent the development of the nation's No. 1 killer in its initial stages.
These findings will be presented for the first time at the American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions in Chicago Nov. 17.
The study, led by WenFeng Cai, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow under the direction of Litsa Kranias, PhD, AHA distinguished scientist and Hanna Chair in Cardiology in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics, ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Medications do not have a chance to fight health problems if they are taken improperly or not taken at all. Non-adherence to medications costs thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year in the United States alone, according to the New England Healthcare Institute. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have developed an intervention strategy that is three times more effective than previously studied techniques at improving adherence in patients.
Cynthia Russell, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, found that patients ...
Results of a Toronto Western Hospital study show that patients suffering back pain get quicker diagnosis and treatment when a Nurse Practitioner conducts the first examination. Traditionally, patients face long and anxiety-ridden wait times - up to 52 weeks – before an initial examination by a spine surgeon. Results from the year long TWH study showed wait times for patients examined by a Nurse Practitioner were significantly shorter, ranging from 10 to 21 weeks.
"Waiting times for specialty consultations in public healthcare systems worldwide are lengthy and impose undue ...
Sunlight represents the cleanest, greenest and far and away most abundant of all energy sources, and yet its potential remains woefully under-utilized. High costs have been a major deterrant to the large-scale applications of silicon-based solar cells. Nanopillars - densely packed nanoscale arrays of optically active semiconductors - have shown potential for providing a next generation of relatively cheap and scalable solar cells, but have been hampered by efficiency issues. The nanopillar story, however, has taken a new twist and the future for these materials now looks ...
Scientists are looking for answers — including commercial bathroom disinfectants and over-the-counter fungicides used to fight athlete's foot — to help in the battle against a strange fungus that threatens bat populations in the United States. That's the topic of an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine.
C&EN Senior Correspondent Stephen K. Ritter notes that despite their poor public image, bats are beneficial. They pollinate plants, spread seeds, and eat vast numbers of insects that otherwise could destroy food ...
