Saturday, January 09, 2021

After decades of effort, scientists are finally seeing black holes—or are they?

Very recommendable! Excellent summary article on black holes research of the past several decades! And it includes alternative theories about black holes and more.

"... Like a bell, the black hole would oscillate at one main frequency and multiple overtones ... The oscillations would quickly fade as the black hole radiated gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space itself. ...
In February 2016, experimenters with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a pair of huge instruments in Louisiana and Washington, reported the first observation of fleeting gravitational ripples, which had emanated from two black holes, each about 30 times as massive as the Sun, spiraling into each other 1.3 billion light-years away. LIGO even sensed the “ring down”: the shudder of the bigger black hole produced by the merger. Teukolsky’s old thesis was suddenly cutting-edge physics. ...
Gravitational wave detectors have spotted four dozen black hole mergers since LIGO’s breakthrough detection. In April 2019, an international collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) produced the first image of a black hole. By training radio telescopes around the globe on the supermassive black hole in the heart of the nearby galaxy Messier 87 (M87) ... Meanwhile, astronomers are tracking stars that zip close to the black hole in the center of our own Galaxy, following paths that may hold clues to the nature of the black hole itself. ...
The smaller black holes detected by LIGO and, now, the European gravitational wave detector Virgo in Italy have proved heavier and more varied than expected, straining astrophysicists’ understanding of the massive stars from which they presumably form. And the environment around the supermassive black hole in our Galaxy appears surprisingly fertile, teeming with young stars not expected to form in such a maelstrom. But some scientists feel the pull of a more fundamental question: Are they really seeing the black holes predicted by Einstein’s theory? ..."

After decades of effort, scientists are finally seeing black holes—or are they? | Science | AAAS



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