Next time you’re out on a clear night, turn towards the Sagittarius constellation and know that you’re probably looking at a black hole. Via the detection of an X-ray nova outburst, NASA’s Swift Satellite has discovered a black hole, named Swift J1745-26, located about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy’s inner region. SwiftJ1745-26 was found because a pool of gas from a normal sun-like star was surging into the black hole after having accumulated into a disk around the spot for decades. This makes Swift J1745-26 different from other systems since gas does not collect around the disk for a long period of time and instead steadily spirals inward. The result of this event was a short-lived, bright X-ray nova. An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray known to spontaneously appear, take a few days to reach its emission peak, and then fade out, usually over a period of months. According to the scientists working with the Swift Satellite, the bright X-ray nova emission produced by Swift J1745-26 was a rare sight and indicative of a black hole. The x-ray outburst was analyzed using the thermal-viscous limit cycle, which helps astronomers understand transient outbursts such as the one around Swift J1745-26.
Source: Science Daily
