‘Goldilocks’ Black Hole: The Clue To Our Origins
The discovery of a ‘Goldilocks’ black hole serves to tell the origins of our universe. But what makes this so special?
The various black holes in our solar system are categorized based on their size and the events that led to their formation. A more common type of black hole is the supermassive black hole, which, as the name implies, is the largest type of black hole known at the moment. The other common type of black hole is the micro black hole, which, you guessed it, represents smaller black holes.
You may be thinking, what type represents those in between these two extremes? Well, just like you, scientists noticed the large difference between the masses of supermassive and micro black holes. This led them to create another type of black hole that has a mass in between the masses of the other two black holes. This type of black hole was dubbed the intermediate black hole, or IMBH for short. Because of their masses, IMBHs are also called ‘Goldilocks’ black holes.
While the existence of this black hole was stated, few had ever been found, until recently. The IMBH was thought to be ancient compared to the other categories of black holes, and its age could help in defining the origins of our universe.
What Exactly Are Black Holes?
Many people have heard of black holes, but most people don’t know what they are. By definition, a black hole is a celestial body where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape it. If you remember from middle or high school physics, any object with mass has a gravitational pull. That means even humans have a gravitational pull. However, the strength of the gravitational pull depends on the mass of the object, and since humans have a relatively small mass, our gravitational pull is often negligible. A black hole, on the other hand, has a mass anywhere from 20 times to 1 million times the mass of the Sun. Scientists believe that the smallest black hole could be as small as one atom while having the mass of a mountain. This incredibly large mass gives black holes the ability to bend and even contain light, making it so that almost nothing can escape.
Black holes also have a unique property where they can merge. Often, when two black holes are pulled together, they are merged into one, larger black hole. Most IMBHs were created by carefully merging micro black holes over a period spanning the age of the universe. IMBHs require micro black holes to merge over time and stay away from larger black holes that they may merge with. This is the main explanation for why IMBHs are so rare and why these black holes could contain information about the origins of our universe.
One last thing to know about black holes is the way that they are formed and where they are located. This is more unique to each category of black holes. For example, supermassive black holes, due to their strong gravity, are often found at the center of galaxies, and their gravitational pull is the reason our suns orbit in the Milky Way Galaxy. The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is known as Sagittarius A and was found to have a mass of over 4 million suns.
Black holes are created when a star is about to die. The star can die in two ways: it will either implode on itself or explode. When a star explodes, it is known as a supernova, and the gas from the star often creates nebulas. This gas, over time, can heat up and combine to create a new star. However, when the star implodes or collapses on itself, it creates a black hole.
The ‘Goldilocks’ Black Hole
The few IMBHs that were previously discovered were often around the size of 150 suns, but the IMBH discovered recently is around the mass of 55,000 suns. This IMBH opens the gateway for further studies of our universe, such as one finding that predicts around 46,000 IMBHs in the vicinity of the Milky Way galaxy.
How was this black hole found? Well, the answer to that lies in a method known as gravitational lensing to detect gamma rays. A gamma-ray burst, which is around half a second of light energy, caused by the merging of two stars is detected back here on Earth. When this energy travels around a black hole, it is essentially ‘split’, and when gravitational lensing equipment detects two mirror images of the same energy, we can conclude that a black hole was in the path of that energy. This is all done using sophisticated software specifically designed to look for black holes.
Why are IMBHs important? To answer that question, we need to look at supermassive black holes. Recall that they have the largest masses of all the black holes, and they often sit in the center of galaxies. Black holes accumulate mass by merging over time to reach their current mass. What currently baffles scientists is that a supermassive black hole’s mass is so large that accumulating such a mass would take more time than the age of our universe. Does this mean that our universe is older than previously thought? If so, how come the calculations are incorrect? Is there an undiscovered explanation for this issue?
Researchers believe that a large IMBH could be studied to solve this mystery. Micro black holes do not work because watching them become supermassive black holes would take a very long time. The same issue lies in smaller IMBHs. This is why the ‘Goldilocks’ black hole has so much potential in explaining many phenomena, including the origins of our universe.
Our understanding of the universe is microscopic compared to all the questions that we have. Discoveries such as the IMBH could lead to more discoveries that may ease our curiosity. Hopefully, with the observation of this rare ‘Goldilocks’ black hole, we may be able to get more answers to our questions.
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