Astronomers are increasingly drawing back the curtains on black holes.
But theres still a lot we dont know about black holes.
One of the biggest enigmas is exactly how they form in the first place.
Our results are published in two papers inNatureand theAstrophysical Journal.
The stars core normally provides pressure, or support, using heat from intense nuclear reactions.
First image of a black hole.
Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.
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Some pessimistic models suggest the entire starwould be swallowed up without much of a trace.
Others propose that the collapse to a black hole would producesome other kind of explosion.
For example, asuper-magnetized neutron starcould form in such an explosion and produce powerful jets of its own.
Mystery solved?
Excitingly, we were even able to rule out a normal supernova explosion.
Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
While this is our favored interpretation, its not the only possibility.
To answer these questions, we will need to search for more such objects.
Until now these kinds of explosions have been difficult to study because they are fleeting and hard to find.
Either way, it seems this truly is the decade we crack the mysteries of black holes.
