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Article Images

Speeding black hole

8 November 2002

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Artist's impression shows a black hole and its yellow companion star being sent out on a long journey through the Milky Way galaxy by the explosive kick of a supernova - one of the Universe's most titanic events.

New observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to measure the motion of this black-hole system across the sky using images taken in 1996 and 2001. The results are surprising: the black hole streaks across the plane of our Milky Way at a velocity four times that of stars around it! This is the first direct link between black holes and the supernovae that create them.

Credits: ESA, NASA and Felix Mirabel (French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)

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Artist's impression shows an oblique view of our Milky Way galaxy. The black-hole system GRO J1655-40 is streaking through space at a rate of 400 000 kilometres per hour - 4 times faster than the average velocity of the stars in the galactic neighbourhood. The yellow star is our Sun.

Credits: European Space Agency, NASA and Felix Mirabel (the French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)

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NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Year 2001 observation of the black-hole system GRO J1655-40 in the constellation of Scorpius. Hubble's high resolution has allowed astronomers to measure the motion of this black-hole system across the sky using this image and an image taken in 1996. Scientists combined the Hubble data with those obtained from ground-based telescopes and found that the black hole is moving through space with a velocity of 400 000 kilometres per hour. This has provided possibly the best evidence yet that stellar-mass black holes are made in supernova explosions.

The 720-second exposure was taken through a red filter.

Credits: ESA, NASA and Felix Mirabel (French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)