Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday August 20 2019, @07:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-proton-and-a-neutron-star-walk-into-a-black-hole dept.

This past Wednesday (and about 900 million years ago), for the first time according to scientists at Australian National University (ANU) gravitational-wave discovery machines detected a black hole swallowing a neutron star

Professor Susan Scott, from the ANU Research School of Physics, said the achievement completed the team's trifecta of observations on their original wish list, which included the merger of two black holes and the collision of two neutron stars.

"About 900 million years ago, this black hole ate a very dense star, known as a neutron star, like Pac-man—possibly snuffing out the star instantly," said Professor Scott, Leader of the General Relativity Theory and Data Analysis Group at ANU and a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).

Professor Scott notes that there is an alternative, but unlikely, possibility as well

there is the slight but intriguing possibility that the swallowed object was a very light black hole—much lighter than any other black hole we know about in the Universe. That would be a truly awesome consolation prize.

[...] The ANU SkyMapper Telescope responded to the detection alert and scanned the entire likely region of space where the event occurred, but we've not found any visual confirmation.

The scientists continue to analyze the data and search for the event in the sky and expect to publish the final results once complete.

Also at c|net.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday August 20 2019, @09:18AM (1 child)

    by Hartree (195) on Tuesday August 20 2019, @09:18AM (#882543)

    "What was the Aussie contribution?"

    Their PR people wrote a press release?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:41AM (#882995)

    That's already more than they contributed to WW1. Go aussie go!

    ''Australians were 10 times more likely to go absent in the Great War than British soldiers, or the Canadians or New Zealanders,'' says the British-born Stanley, who was principal historian at the Australian War Memorial before moving to the National Museum of Australia where he is the director of historical research.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/portrait-of-the-anzacs-deserters-more-interested-in-booze-brawls-and-sex-20100801-111f3.html [smh.com.au]