Scientists are studying a new small black hole which despite its size, hold too much power on it. Its power contradicts previous theories pertaining to black holes size, mass, and energy.
It is long-believed as well that the gravitational pull of black holes are so strong that even light cannot get out. Their sizes also vary. The smallest are just the size of an atom while the supermassive black holes are huge enough to contain 4 million Suns and few million of Earths. Another theory was that, the bigger the black hole is, the bigger mass it has, which equals to stronger gravitational pull as well.
However, scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) led by Dr. Roberto Soria of Curtin University found a small black hole which contains energy stronger than what it is supposed to have.
This new, small black hole dubbed as MQ1 may help provide better understanding on the formation of stars, their evolution and death. Researchers also wanted to know why there are more powerful black holes being born 12 billion years ago than recent times. They believe that the energy of the black hole affects its outside environment somehow.
"MQ1 is classed as a microquasar - a black hole surrounded by a bubble of hot gas, which is heated by two jets just outside the black hole, powerfully shooting out energy in opposite directions, acting like cosmic sandblasters pushing out on the surrounding gas," Soria said in a press release.
"This must have been a significant factor in the early stages of galaxy evolution, 12 billion years ago, because we have evidence that powerful black holes like MQ1, which are rare today, were much more common at the time," Soria added.
MQ1 measures only 100 kilometers wide as determined by the Hubble Space Telescope yet can accommodate mass bigger than our Solar System which can stretch up to more than 9 million miles. This contradicts the theory that "a black hole with the mass of our own sun would not "suck" objects into it any more than our own sun does with its own gravitational pull." Our Sun' radius is about 695.5 kilometers. The researchers admitted though that they will need more time to determine the actual size of MQ1.
Further details of this discovery can be read in the Feb. 27 issue of Science.
