Astronomers Say a Black Hole Is Speeding Through Space
Astronomers are confused on why a black hole is speeding through space, up until now, movement has been rare in occurrence.
When Soundgarden's Chris Cornell sang the words, "black hole sun, won't you come", none of us actually knew that was an option but that is what is happening.
According to WOOD, there is a black hole that is moving over 110,000 mph, weighs 3 million times more than the sun and is 230 million light years from Earth. Normally these giant holes stay put because of their size but for some reason this one is on the move and astronomers want to know why.
Scientists say that it takes a massive force to get a black hole in any kind of motion because of their size and weight, one traveling at 110,000 mph can be concerning.
According to researchers, usually only one in 10 black holes are found to be moving but the reason for this movement has not been found.
WOOD reported that a radio astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Jim Condon alluded to two possibilities, "the aftermath of two black holes merging, causing the newborn black hole to recoil. The other possibility is that the black hole is part of a binary system."
An astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics Dominic Pesce said, "despite every expectation that they really ought to be out there in some abundance, scientists have had a hard time identifying clear examples of binary supermassive black holes. What we could be seeing in the galaxy J0437+2456 is one of the black holes in such a pair, with the other remaining hidden to our radio observations because of its lack of maser emission."
Astronomers will definitely be doing more research to more understand what is a definitive reason for a black hole's rare movement.
You may think why is this important, well, if you have seen what a small meteor can do and we know a big one will act like a nuclear bomb if hits Earth, a moving black hole could swallow our planet in an instant.