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Newly discovered nearby black hole - selden - 04-17-2024
Gaia recently announced the discovery of a 33 solar mass black hole (Gaia BH3) about 2000LY away in the constellation of Aquila. It's currently the largest known stellar black hole in the Milky Way. Along with Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, this is the 3rd black hole they've discovered which seems to be in Terragen space.
See
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Sleeping_giant_surprises_Gaia_scientists
and
https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202449763
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - Drashner1 - 04-17-2024
Neat! Perhaps someone will be inspired to write up an article(s) on it/them.
Todd
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - stevebowers - 04-18-2024
Lots of strange characteristics about this star. Probably from another galaxy, and the remaining star seems to have been captured later.
Quote:The star orbiting Gaia BH3 at about 16 times the Sun–Earth distance is rather uncommon: an ancient giant star, that formed in the first two billion years after the Big Bang, at the time our galaxy started to assemble. It belongs to the family of the Galactic stellar halo and is moving in the opposite direction to the stars of the Galactic disc. Its trajectory indicates that this star was probably part of a small galaxy, or a globular cluster, engulfed by our own galaxy more than eight billion years ago.
The companion star has very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, indicating that the massive star that became Gaia BH3 could also have been very poor in heavy elements. This is remarkable. It supports, for the first time, the theory that the high-mass black holes observed by gravitational wave experiments were produced by the collapse of primeval massive stars poor in heavy elements. These early stars might have evolved differently from the massive stars we currently see in our galaxy.
The composition of the companion star can also shed light on the formation mechanism of this astonishing binary system. "What strikes me is that the chemical composition of the companion is similar to what we find in old metal-poor stars in the galaxy,” explains Elisabetta Caffau of CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, also a member of the Gaia collaboration.
“There is no evidence that this star was contaminated by the material flung out by the supernova explosion of the massive star that became BH3.” This could suggest that the black hole acquired its companion only after its birth, capturing it from another system."
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - Avengium - 04-19-2024
Do we have to correct something on Orion's Arm to include that Black Hole?
Do we know the name of the political region in fiction?
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - stevebowers - 04-19-2024
The nearest black hole in OA at the moment is Threshold, Sco BH-76
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/47a3e440c01a5
This doesn't seem to be a real object, although there may be a rogue black hole somewhere in Scorpio we haven't detected yet. It would be easy to change this to Gaia BH3 in Aquila, which is mostly in Keter, Biopolity and Cygexpa space.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/501ecf5548a1f
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - Drashner1 - 04-19-2024
(04-19-2024, 03:38 AM)stevebowers Wrote: The nearest black hole in OA at the moment is Threshold, Sco BH-76
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/47a3e440c01a5
This doesn't seem to be a real object, although there may be a rogue black hole somewhere in Scorpio we haven't detected yet. It would be easy to change this to Gaia BH3 in Aquila, which is mostly in Keter, Biopolity and Cygexpa space.
https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/501ecf5548a1f
We could certainly do this. Or just add the new BH in and leave Threshold as is. I'm fine with either option.
If someone is inspired to write up this system as a more fully described place in OA, that likely works either way, with the latter option just requiring the current article on Threshold to be folded in to one degree or another (Note: IIRC there is also a short short/vignette in the fiction section that takes place in orbit around the Threshold BH. I don't recall how compliant it is/isn't with current canon).
Todd
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - Avengium - 04-20-2024
I prefer we leave the article of Threshold as is.
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - stevebowers - 04-20-2024
The Threshold story is compatible with current canon, but it doesn't state exactly where the black hole is located, so we can certainly change the location of Threshold to Gaia BH3.
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - stevebowers - 04-21-2024
I've made a new image of the Gaia BH3 accretion disc, with some orbiting infrastructure nearby. The large and ancient companion star is just off screen to the left.
RE: Newly discovered nearby black hole - stevebowers - 04-21-2024
(04-20-2024, 02:18 AM)Avengium Wrote: I prefer we leave the article of Threshold as is.
I'm happy to do that; Threshold can be a solitary 'rogue' black hole with no companion, and the article can stay as it is.
What shall we call Gaia BH3 then?