Scientists found huge black hole

Scientists discover massive black hole with rotation near the speed of light


With the aid of X-ray telescopes in space, XXM-Newton and NuSTAR was finally possible to measure the first time, the speed of rotation of a massive black hole (BNS).

The BNS is located in the center a galaxy called NGC 1365, and according to data provided by the telescopes, the tip rotates at 84 percent the speed of light. This means that your speed is at 16% the speed limit of the universe, according to the General Theory of Relativity, Einstein.



Supermassive black holes are the largest known objects of its kind, with masses millions, or billions of times the mass of our Sun Scientists believe that at the heart of most, if not all galaxies, we can find a BNS, surrounded by an accretion disk of dust and gas, which represents the material swallowed by the black hole.

Most have black holes rotate, and this rotation is called angular momentum. With the galaxy to rotate about the BNS, matter that advances into the body astronomical mass under the influence of gravity, angular momentum carries along with it. This angular momentum causes the spacetime rotate around the BNS in an effect known as entrainment.

There is a limit to which the space-time can rotate, in general, the linear speed of the dragging must be less than the speed of light. But so far, the fact that we do not know how they are formed and why BNS exist at the center of galaxies, became unclear and understanding our predictions of its angular momentum.



To get around this, scientists have developed a method to measure the rotation of a BNS. According to the image above, near a supermassive black hole, the accretion disk is very hot and emits a huge amount of X-rays.

This type of X-rays, in particular, is associated with iron atoms that when excited, become easily visible. But his appearance is, however, a little strange. The X-rays are amplified over a wide range of energy and their distribution has slopes in relation to the rate of rotation of the BNS.

X-rays from iron atoms are generated by fluorescence near the inner edge of the accretion disk. This means that the source moves rapidly around the BNS, so that the X-ray spectrum of iron is spread by the general equivalent of the relativistic Doppler shift.



Thanks to the structural features of the X-ray spectrum of iron, we can now determine the speed of a massive black hole. The intensity varies with energy of X-rays in the range 5-50 electron kilo-volts (keV). However, the XXM-Newton telescope of ESA, is only sensitive to x-ray intensities from 1 to 10 keV, which would limit how to calculate the rotations of BNS, and preventing them from being determined by such measurements .



Fortunately, in mid-2012, NASA launched the Space Telescope NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), capable of measuring X-ray broader. The telescope is sensitive to higher energy intensity, varying from 6 to 79 keV, the previous generations of telescopes. This advance was finally possible to calculate with accuracy and precision, the speed of rotation of a BNS.



This time, using the X-ray spectrum obtained by the NuSTAR telescope, an international team of researchers was able to prove that alternative models that explained the line broadening, were totally false. The spectrum also allowed, which astronomers could correct the calculations relating to the angular momentum of the black hole NGC 1365, determining that spins at least 84 per hundred of the speed of light.

These are excellent news for astronomers. Thanks to the new measuring method, we will now be able to discover how they evolve black holes and galaxies.