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IMAGE: Sloan Digital Sky Survey archival image from March 2004 (top) and the image from the authors observation campaign of the blazar, B2 1420+32, taken in January 2020 using ASAS-SN (bottom).. view more
Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey archival image from March 2004 (top) and the image from the authors observation campaign of the blazar, B2 1420+32, taken in January 2020 using ASAS-SN (bottom)..
A University of Oklahoma doctoral student, graduate and undergraduate research assistants, and an associate professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences are lead authors on a paper describing a changing-look blazar - a powerful active galactic nucleus powered by supermassive blackhole at the center of a galaxy. The paper is published in
“There appears to be a theoretical maximum to the mass of a neutron star at up to 3 solar masses,” Jayasinghe, who recently led a study published in
Astrobiology, told SYFY WIRE. “So the Unicorn is truly one of the smallest black holes possible. Finding these systems will help scientists understand the formation mechanisms of black holes and neutron stars.”
The Unicorn is a mass gap compact object some 1,500 light years from Earth. Rare and not well understood, these are cosmic objects that are by no means small to human eyes. The heaviest neutron star that has been found so far is 2.5 solar masses, while the Unicorn is among the smallest known black holes at 3 solar masses. The few that have been detected are all around 5 solar masses. Whether anything exists in that “mass gap” between the heaviest neutron star and the lightest black holes are what scientists were trying to find out, and the Unicorn fits in.
When it comes to black holes, does size really matter? Would you be afraid if astronomers discovered one of the tiniest black holes ever? Would you change your mind if they told you it was also the closest black hole to the Earth ever found? How close? Ah, all of sudden, size DOES matter!
Tharindu Jayasinghe is a doctoral student in astronomy at The Ohio State University and part of a team of researchers looking for tiny black holes – a new class of black holes discovered in 2019 at The Ohio State University. They were scanning data on a red giant star in the constellation Monoceros – so named because it resembles the mythical steed – when they noticed something was causing the light from the red giant to periodically change in intensity and appearance. The changes were so drastic that they signaled the orbiting object was massive enough to change its shape – a phenomenon called tidal distortion – but not large enough to block it completely from view. Knowing what they kno
still bright at magnitudes at 8.1 and 9.9, respectively, but a brand new nova in Scorpius has just joined the scene. Add in Comet ATLAS (C/2020 R4), now at magnitude 9.5, and you know in your heart a dawn observing session is in your future.
Amateur astronomer Paul Camilleri of Northern Territory, Australia and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) independently discovered the new object early on April 12th at visual magnitude 9.5. Formally named V1710 Scorpii, it brightened quickly to 8.5 before fading slightly, now simmering around 9.5 as of early April 15th. Oscillations like these are common, so the nova might continue to fade or re-brighten just as suddenly.