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Published online 1 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.792
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Astronomers spot a runaway supermassive black hole
Fast-moving black holes leave behind hole-less galaxies.
A black hole 600 million times the mass of the Sun has been kicked out of the centre of a distant galaxy, according to research from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany.
The first-of-its-kind observation, if confirmed, would be a long-awaited validation for theorists.
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I'm most curious in the implicatioms this discovery has on the nature behind gravitational waves caused by mergers of supermassive black holes, and the effect of a high-velocity black hole on the space-time continuum. If more of these wayward black holes exist, it should be feasible to measure gravitational waves and give insight to the nature of our highly elusive force of nature.
The LISA mission mentioned in the article will observe merger events that liberate 'wayward' black holes, as well as probably hundreds of other massive black hole mergers going back in time to the beginnings of galaxy formation. With gravitational waves, it is possible to measure the properties of these systems (mass, spins, orbital parameters, etc), with errors well below a percent for most of the Universe, and trace the evolutionary history of massive black holes. LISA will be most sensitive to massive black holes around a million solar masses or smaller, which were more common in the early Universe.
The team at LIGO is hopeful we will detect gravitational waves here on Earth according to a spokesperson. I hope they are correct.
This is undoubtedly an interesting article but why must it always be assumed these days that the explanation for almost anything in astrophysics is provided by the presence of a black hole somewhere? Contrary to the wording in this article, no black hole has been identified beyond reasonable doubt anywhere. This is not really surprising as the relativistic notion of a black hole - as distinct from John Michell's black body - is a mathematical entity and is normally taken as being predicted by an incorrect version of Schwartzschild's solution of the Einstein equations. (This latter point is easily checked by viewing Schwartzschild's original paper.) It's about time observations in astronomy were viewed more open-mindedly and all this obsession with black holes and their thermodynamics was modified. These comments may well offend some but I urge readers to pause and think before condemning.
Black holes may not exist. Repulsive forces between neutrons, discovered at the start of the 21st century, will almost certainly prevent the collapse of a neutron star into a black hole. http://www.omatumr.com/Data/2000Data.htm The demise of imaginary black holes also brings good news for solar and particle physics: Neutron repulsion explains solar luminosity and the OBSERVED number of solar neutrinos without the "ad hoc" oscillation of solar electron neutrinos into other species before they reach our detectors. - Oliver K. Manuel, http://www.omatumr.com