Black Hole Stars Are Apparently Real and Help Explain a Long-Standing Mystery
It’s time to cue up some Chris Cornell and get in the mood, because astronomers may have found a real black hole sun. While the Soundgarden frontman wrote the 1994 song after mishearing a news broadcast, the black hole star we’re talking about today is likely very real.
Astronomers have been studying the half-black hole, half-star object, known formally as MoM-BH*-1, and this week published the results of their analysis in the journal Nature. The object bears a striking resemblance to a star, thanks to its outer shell of very hot and dense gas. It exhibits other star-like behaviors as well, especially when viewed with the NIRSpec instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
But there are some notable differences when compared to other stars. MoM-BH*-1 has a black hole at the center instead of a molten core like a traditional star. It’s also the size of our...
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