NP - Black hole bolsters supernova hypothesis

[David Morris]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/323/nation/Black_hole_bolsters_supernova_hypothesis+.shtml

WASHINGTON - Astronomers have spotted a black hole speeding through the Milky
Way as it gobbles up the outer layers of a doomed companion star locked in a
fatal gravitational embrace. 

The discovery provides direct observational evidence that black holes with
masses comparable to single stars can, as long theorized, form in supernova
explosions, the catastrophic end result for the most massive stars in the
universe.

''This is the first black hole found to be moving fast through the plane of our
galaxy,'' Felix Mirabel, of the French Atomic Energy Commission and the
Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics of Argentina, said in a statement.
''This discovery is exciting because it shows the link of a black hole to a
supernova.''

The black hole, known as GRO J1655-40, is heading in the general direction of
Earth, racing through space at about 250,000 miles per hour in the
constellation Scorpius. Lest anyone worry about some future collision, the
black hole is 6,000 to 9,000 light years away, putting it more than 16 million
years from Earth's vicinity in the Milky Way.



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