Black Hole Wobble

Einstein theory explains why objects appear to flicker as they are devoured into a black hole.

21:35 14 July 2016

When cosmic objects fall into a black hole, they are heated by extreme forces to up to millions of degrees before they finally plunge into their doom and lost forever. During this process, the matter generates X-rays that flicker at faster speeds before stopping altogether.

 

Observations using Nasa telescopes have provided an explanation for this flickering pattern – revealing it is caused by the material around the black hole wobbling as it is gobbled up.

 

Dr Adam Ingram, from the University of Amsterdam, who works to understand QPOs, explained: 'It is a bit like twisting a spoon in honey. Imagine that the honey is space and anything embedded in the honey will be 'dragged' around by the twisting spoon.'

 

'In reality, this means that anything orbiting a spinning object will have its motion affected.'

 

Meanwhile, Norbert Schartel, ESA Project Scientist for XMM-Newton, said that the study was a breakthrough. 'This is a major breakthrough since the study combines information about the timing and energy of X-ray photons to settle the 30-year debate around the origin of QPOs. The photon-collecting capability of XMM-Newton was instrumental in this work,'