Astronomers find black hole ‘which could be spinning space itself’

Image Credit: NASA / Alain Riazuelo

Via aol.co.uk

Astronomers using India's astronomy satellite have found a black hole which is spinning so fast it could be spinning space itself.

While the idea is surreal, it's based on Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity – and understanding the 'spin' of the black hole could be key to grasping how galaxies formed.

Astronomers found that the black hole the binary star system 4U 1630-47 is spinning at close to the maximum possible rate.

That means that it potentially could be 'spinning' space around it, Science Alert reported.


Sudip Bhattacharyya, Associate Professor at TIFR said, 'The scientific measurement of the spin rate of the black hole, an extremely exotic but the simplest object of the universe, comes out to be close to the maximum possible value.

'This is generally very important to probe some extreme aspects of the universe, and the fundamental physics (for example, the theory of gravitation) related to them.

'Such measurements, especially of the spin rate, are very difficult to make, and can be done only by high-quality X-ray observations in the correct state of the binary stellar system, in which the black hole is gobbling matter from its companion star.'

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