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I was slightly frustrated when reading the article a couple of days ago, and now, when reading these comments. Most likely, there is nothing exotic here. Most l
by goodcanadian 6y ago
I was slightly frustrated when reading the article a couple of days ago, and now, when reading these comments. Most likely, there is nothing exotic here. Most likely, it is a black hole as everything heavier than a neutron star is most likely a black hole. Lower mass black holes should exist, and perhaps, we have finally found one.
The next most likely possibility is that it is a neutron star which would suggest that our understanding of the mass limit of neutron stars is out. This is entirely possible as the physics of neutron stars is pretty extreme, but it seems a lot less likely to me.
Now, I'm happy to keep an open mind as we don't know for sure and we haven't previously found anything in this mass range, but calling it a "black neutron star" implies something new and exotic when it probably isn't.
- incompatible 6y agoI think the article can be summarized as "A gravitational wave detector has found an object of 2.6 solar masses. Astronomers don't know whether it's an exotic type of neutron star or a light black hole". It doesn't seem especially surprising that objects of 2.6 solar masses could exist. It would be more surprising to me if they could not.
- PopeDotNinja 6y agoI like the idea that a neutron star can be right at the limit of becoming a black hole, but still be a star. Then a space pigeon flies down to the surface for a quick rest, and shhhhhllurrrrrp... black hole.
- Retric 6y agoThe mass limit depends on how fast it’s rotating, so they can simply slow down slightly and slurp, black hole.
- PopeDotNinja 6y agoIt blows my mind to think that shining a light on a black hole makes it grow.
- treeman79 6y agoSpoiler for Expanse book series. This is a plot device In a later book. A neutron Star on the very edge. Someone throws essential some dust on it to get it trigger at the right moment
- hliyan 6y agoOn an unrelated note is there a service that translates news into this type of summary? I can't be the only person willing to fork over money for something like that.
- mikro2nd 6y agoThey used to be called "science journalists". I think the reason they disappeared may have something to do with the fact that we (largely) stopped forking over money for what they did.
- enriquto 6y agoThat summary should be the first sentence of the story (or a subtitle). Instead of a "service" that rewrites badly written stories maybe we need journalists who can write.
- simonh 6y agoA star could form in that mass range, but we don't think it could remain stable enough to collapse at that mass range at the end of it's life as a star. Our current models indicate we would expect it to blast off enough mass that the remnant would be too small to undergo complete gravitational collapse. That's why finding one is so interesting and useful.
- simonh 6y agoIt's not quite as simple as that because the dynamics of black hole formation in the transitional mass range seem likely to be somewhat complex. When big stars age and cool they can undergo massive dynamic changes, such as the red giant phase and triggering a supernova. Current models for these changes indicate that stars in this transitional mass range are expected to 'blow themselves to bits' to put it bluntly and not leave a remnant big enough to collapse into a black hole. This is where the mass gap comes from. Stars smaller than the mass gap are modelled to become neutron stars, stars in the mass gap are too unstable to end up forming black holes. Only stars bigger than the mass gap range are believed to have gravity fields strong enough to overcome these instabilities and undergo complete collapse. That's the model anyway. The discovery of an object in this mass range calls those models into question and that's why it's such as useful and interesting find. That's the short version. In fact there are several possible models, and this will hopefully help us exclude some and refine others.
- goodcanadian 6y agoI agree the question of how it formed is a bit more complex, but what it is seems pretty straightforward. Some plausible formation mechanisms include primordial black hole and neutron star merger. It could also be some other alignment of statistically improbable events. We've only found one so far, after all.