Youngest Black Hole; NASA Identified Remnant of Supernova Explosion in Milky Way Galaxy [Photo]
NASA reported on Wednesday that the Chandra X-Ray Observatory discovered the remnant of a supernova that may contain the youngest black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy.
The supernova remnant is known as W49B and is located about 26,000 light years from Earth and the results of the researchers' findings were drafted for the latest issue of Astrophysical Journal .
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology involved in the study, stated that the supernova exploded around 1,000 years ago as seen from Earth.
It also currently appears to be elliptical rather than others that appear as spherical.
"In addition to its unusual signature of elements, W49B also is much more elongated and elliptical than most other remnants," said Ramirez-Ruiz. "This is seen in X-rays and several other wavelengths and points to an unusual demise for this star."
Most supernovas result in the formation of a neutron star which is a small, incredibly dense body comprised almost entirely of neutrons. The research team looked for a distinctive X-ray characteristic that is found in neutron stars.
However, upon examination of the data from the Chandra telescope researchers found no sign which indicated that the remnant is instead a black hole. This means that it would be the youngest black hole currently known in the galaxy, according to Red Orbit.
Lead researcher Laura Lopez believed the evidence suggested that rather than a typical supernova, this was actually a part of a gamma-ray burst.
Lopez described the research and images taken by Chandra in a blog post: "With the superb imaging of Chandra, we looked for a neutron star, and we couldn't find anything. In fact, the deep observation allowed us to say there's no neutron star in W49B that's even 1/100 as bright as astronomers think it would be. This result supports the fact that W49B's supernova formed a black hole, which is consistent with the explosion having been a gamma-ray burst."
Additional images of the supernova remnant can be seen at CNET.
