The very name “black hole” seems to indicate they would be impossible to detect against the vast blackness of space unless you've got some pretty powerful and expensive equipment. But scientists have now found that even a backyard hobbyist can now gaze upon the space phenomena known as black holes with a simple telescope.
Scientists normally use gamma ray telescopes in order to detect black holes. However, as it turns out, visible light is emitted by black holes under certain conditions.
According to a paper published in Nature in a joint study by researchers from RIKEN laboratory, Rochester Institute of Technology, Kyoto University, space agency JAXA, and Hiroshima University, a common type of black hole known as an X-ray binary, is cause by a star dying and exploding, sucking in everything in its surroundings. This process causes the newly formed black hole to emit massive amounts of x-ray radiation as well as some low-level light.
Using a nearby black hole, named V404 Cygni, the researchers showed that anyone can view this phenomenon with a simple 8-inch telescope, given the right conditions. But as long as the black hole is close enough to earth, it should be within viewing range for star gazers.
“If black hole binaries are far from Earth optical light from near them disappears in its long journey to Earth because it is absorbed into interstellar matter,” explained Mariko Kimura, lead author of the paper. He also added that the outbursts which make the black holes up to 100 times brighter than normal only occurs once in several decades. So astronomers have to get as much information as early as possible in order to point their telescopes and other instruments in the right direction in time to witness it.
Check out this video taken by the researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology’s observatory to see the black hole V404's light.
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James Wooley | Flickr
