Researchers found similarities between black holes and young stars that could explain previously unknown details about the two heavenly bodies.
In a study conducted at the University of Leicester's department of physics and astronomy, researchers found that a flicker in the brightness of young stellar objects (YSO) is similar to that seen from black holes or white dwarfs and is responsible for a phenomenon known as accretion.
Accretion discs are parts of celestial bodies that facilitate the accretion process, which is responsible for their growth and evolution.
All heavenly bodies undergo this process, from young protostars that are still in the formation process to ancient black holes at the center of galaxies that could be as large as the entire solar system.
Little is known about this process or what exactly happens in the accretion discs. However, based on the findings of the study, the team found that cool accretion discs around YSOs show the same behavior as hotter and more violent ones found in white dwarfs and black holes, supporting the concept that accretion physics is universal.
"The seemingly random fluctuations we see from the black holes and white dwarfs look remarkably similar to those from the young stellar objects - it is only the tempo that changes," said Simon Vaughan, one of the study authors.
He also added that, if the physics of accretion is universal, it should also be possible to extend this scaling to other types of accreting systems, regardless of accretor mass, size or type.
The researchers also discovered that there is a relationship between the central object size and the speed of flickering, suggesting that the physics behind accretion may be similar among other astronomical bodies.
The researchers utilized data obtained using NASA's Kepler/K2 and ULTRACAM, a fast and powerful camera that can take 500 shots a second. The setup was able to pick up random brightness variations from accretion discs, allowing the researchers to conduct their study.
Researchers hope to gain more understanding behind accretion in the future, saying that their work provided a solid basis for building a universal model of astrophysical accretion on all celestial bodies.
"The universal plane of accretion-induced variability is a further significant step forward in understanding the physics of accretion because it quantitatively links all types of disc-accreting astrophysical systems," the scientists concluded in their research.
Their findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
