Black hole in Omega Centauri?

[circumpolar]

Cool!
This is news to me, Although they are not deffinitive in their conclusion.
I wonder if most globular clusters will be found to contain Black Holes in their centres?


ScienceDaily 3/12/2008:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081202115328.htm

"Recent research into this intriguing celestial giant suggests that there is a medium sized black hole sitting at its centre. Observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope (see heic0809 ) and the Gemini Observatory showed that stars at the cluster's centre were moving around at an unusual rate — the cause, astronomers concluded, was the gravitational effect of a massive black hole with a mass of roughly 40 000 times that of the Sun."

[sheeny]

Thanks Matt. Interesting.

Al.

[xelasnave]

Yes I had read this and thanks for reminding me Matt.

I have thought and seen others have thought similar that globulars may be the remains of a smaller galaxy stripped to its original core...their orbits seem cosistence with a capture rather than somehow always having been there....if so one would think they would then contain black holes (or at least a super massive body we unfortunately call "black hole")...

alex

[astroron]

Alex, this super massive body that does not emit light and is swallowing matter, what else could you call it?
Please explain.
Ron

[xelasnave]

Ron I am having a dig...I dont like the term black holes...it was a throw away term that stuck ...and yes that is what it is "a balck hole" I just wish they could find a better more "scientific" title...what I have no idea but "black hole" is more appropriate for hollywood in my view...
I hope you understand my drift.
alex

[astroron]

Alex, how about thinking up another name for a Black Hole, such as
"Large Mass none light emitting object";)
Lets see if anyone can come up with something better than that, it shouldn't be hard:rolleyes:
Ron

[jungle11]

How about UMECs : Ultimate Mass/Energy Collectors

[theodog]

I got a few (Moderators -be kind:rolleyes:)

Big All Light Lensing Star
Central Radiation-free Astronomical Point
Terminal Ultra Refracting Dot

Or maybe "Black Hole":doh:
It's just a name:D

Merry Christmas All

[xelasnave]

It is not easy but... "single stars" maybe...those in the know would know what single is for but the general public will just think they are lonley.

Can a black hole be photograped by photographing the energy in effect at the event horizon... mmm what is the diameter of the event horizon I have never thought about that for the numbers available. so many numbers...
cant be that big one must think... Ill goggle if the battery holds
alex

[Quark]

Hi Matt,
Interesting article.
I would think that as genuine GC's are mostly very old and were the first structure to form when their associated galaxies formed, that most would host many examples of stellar old age such as White dwarfs, Pulsars or Neutron stars and stellar mass Black holes. These would be the fossils of the high mass stars that formed when the GC formed.

It would seem unlikely that these GC's would have central high mass Black holes of the variety that inhabit the cores of Galaxies. The processes that formed the galactic Black holes are thought to be quite different from those that form stellar mass Black holes.

GC's are very interesting to study, they have quite unique orbital characteristics compared with the stars in the disc or arms of a Spiral.

On my recent observing trip to the Keck's our targets were the globular clusters associated with four different galaxies. My old unit instructor from Swinburne, Professor Duncan Forbes is an authority on GC's. They are his main field of research.

As they are thought to be the first structure to form when galaxies form, by studying them clues can be gleaned into galaxy formation. Also as they orbit the galactic bulge of their parent galaxy, on great elliptical orbits above and below the galactic bulge, they can be the most extended objects still gravitationally bound to their parent galaxies.

This makes them prime targets for use in probing the Dark Matter Halos of the host galaxies. I have included a link to Duncan's website. If you are interested in delving deeper into GC's you will find some interesting papers on the subject, also there is a Power Point presentation on his site, a work in progress, that has some very interesting info in it on the current thinking of his research team.

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/dforbes

Regards
Trevor

[Paddy]

Thanks for the post Trevor - very interesting and I'm looking forward to perusing the power point presentations.