Robert Brown 2/5/22
Core Chem D Odd Current Event 1
O'Callaghan, Jonathan. “Astronomers Find First Ever Rogue Black Hole Adrift in the Milky Way.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 3 Feb. 2022, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomers-find-first-ever-rogue-black-hole-adrift-in-the-milky-way/.
This article detailed the first confirmed discovery of a rogue interstellar black hole. Scientists have observed many different types of black holes over the past few years, ranging from observing and mapping supermassive black holes found at the center of almost every galaxy to detecting gravitational ripples from smaller black holes merging. The one type of black hole scientists have long predicted but never been able to observe or confirm its existence were rogue black holes, “born and flung out from the collapsing core of a massive star”(O’Callaghan 1). The black hole discovered by scientists is the first unambiguous discovery of one of these rogue black holes and represents decades worth of searching. These black holes have been so hard to identify because of their isolated nature and smallish size. The scientists used a technique known as strometry to note the star’s positions as the black hole passed by it over a period of three hundred day and the slight warping of the star’s position confirmed that the black hole was indeed there. The scientists were able to obtain exact measurements while confirming its existence and concluded it has the mass of about 7.1 suns. The hope is that this is just the tip of the iceberg and numerous other projects have been launched to find more of these rogue black holes.
This discovery is hugely important to astronomy and as such society at large because it represents the next step in our understanding of stellar evolution. Hopefully this is just one of many new discoveries and if that is the case we will fill a huge gap in our understanding of stars’ life cycles, which is critical so we can understand how our sun works. It is also critical because if we want to continue to advance and explore space we need to understand the rules stars and black holes adhere to. Hopefully this discovery marks yet another step on our way to exploring and understanding the vast universe beyond Earth.
The only critique of this article I could procure is that it is not written with language and pacing that lends itself to being read and understood by beginners. It has incredibly detailed information and explanations, it just fails to present that information that can be easily grasped and understood by science students such as myself. It is clear the author knows what he is talking about but I would suggest starting off with a more in depth summary of the different types of black holes so the reader immediately grasps the magnitude of this discovery’s importance.
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