Intermediate Black Hole Implicated in Star's Death

[n2doc]

By Ian O'Neill | Tue Jan 5, 2010 12:23 AM ET

Astronomers presenting at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Washington D.C. on Jan. 4, have reported the detection of the emission generated by a black hole as it devoured a white dwarf star in the elliptical galaxy NGC 1399.

This may not appear to be a huge deal to begin with -- stars being eaten by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies have been detected before -- but it would appear that this particular white dwarf was ripped apart and then devoured by a mysterious "intermediate-mass" black hole.

Black holes are thought to come in all sizes and astronomers are very familiar with stellar-mass black holes (i.e. black holes that are created from single massive star supernovae) and supermassive black hole behemoths (weighing in at several million solar masses) confirmed to be living in the centers of most galaxies.

But what about the black holes in between?

more:
http://news.discovery.com/space/intermediate-black-hole-implicated-in-stars-death.html

[Bicoastal]

1. Aha--Racial profiling.

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