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    Assignment 4: Taylor Pearce 3/05/10 Elsa Johnson

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    Aravind Bhombore
    Black holes cannot be directly observed, but are detected through their gravitational interactions with nearby matter. Matter orbiting or falling into a black hole's strong gravitational field will heat up and emit detectable x-rays, allowing astronomers to locate black holes. Binary neutron star systems can also be detected through x-ray emissions as one neutron star strips matter from its companion. When enough matter is removed, the companion star will explode in a type Ia supernova, which have a consistent luminosity useful for measuring distances in the universe.

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    Assignment 4: Taylor Pearce 3/05/10 Elsa Johnson

    Uploaded by

    Aravind Bhombore
    4 views2 pages
    Black holes cannot be directly observed, but are detected through their gravitational interactions with nearby matter. Matter orbiting or falling into a black hole's strong gravitational field will heat up and emit detectable x-rays, allowing astronomers to locate black holes. Binary neutron star systems can also be detected through x-ray emissions as one neutron star strips matter from its companion. When enough matter is removed, the companion star will explode in a type Ia supernova, which have a consistent luminosity useful for measuring distances in the universe.

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    astronomy

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    A4

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    Black holes cannot be directly observed, but are detected through their gravitational interactions with nearby matter. Matter orbiting or falling into a black hole's strong gravitational field will heat up and emit detectable x-rays, allowing astronomers to locate black holes. Binary neutron star systems can also be detected through x-ray emissions as one neutron star strips matter from its companion. When enough matter is removed, the companion star will explode in a type Ia supernova, which have a consistent luminosity useful for measuring distances in the universe.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    4 views2 pages

    Assignment 4: Taylor Pearce 3/05/10 Elsa Johnson

    Uploaded by

    Aravind Bhombore
    Black holes cannot be directly observed, but are detected through their gravitational interactions with nearby matter. Matter orbiting or falling into a black hole's strong gravitational field will heat up and emit detectable x-rays, allowing astronomers to locate black holes. Binary neutron star systems can also be detected through x-ray emissions as one neutron star strips matter from its companion. When enough matter is removed, the companion star will explode in a type Ia supernova, which have a consistent luminosity useful for measuring distances in the universe.

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    Assignment 4

    Taylor Pearce 3/05/10 Elsa Johnson 1. Because astronomers cannot directly observe or detect black holes they are found by examining their interactions with matter around them. Black holes have an infinite amount of mass in a small space this creates a very strong gravitational field. Stellar objects orbiting this strong gravitational field will either fall into the black hole or if their speed is high enough they will continue to orbit the black hole. The interaction between orbit time and mass can be used to calculate the mass of the unseen black hole verifying that the only object that could have that much of a gravitational effect on an object must be a black hole. Black holes can also be detected when matter is falling into its gravitational field. Matter will collect around the black hole in the accretion disk where it will heat up to very high temperatures and emit high energy x-rays. By searching for these x-rays is how astronomers can locate black holes.

    2. Binary Neutron stars are neutron stars with a normal, white dwarf, or neutron star companion. When these two orbiting stars get close enough the neutron star will begin to remove matter from its neighboring star emitting x-rays much like a black hole. Pairs of neutron stars are thought to be the source of gravitational waves. When a neutron star removes enough matter from its companion it will explode in a type Ia supernova. This is a very specific supernova and has a constant luminosity. This aspect is very useful for measuring distances because the type Ia supernova is bright enough to be seen and has a known luminosity.

    3.

    4. Large Black Hole Density

    Small Black Hole Density

    I was really surprised by the density difference of the black holes. Because they are so dense I thought they would have densities that were much more closely related. But it turned out that the lower mass black hole had a much greater density than the high mass black hole. 5. The last supernova to occur in the milky way was 140 years ago and located about 26,000 light-years away. On average supernovae occur ever 50-100 years in a given galaxy. Based upon the data it appears that our galaxy is overdue for a supernova. Apparently we should have had a supernova forty years ago. Our galaxy is supernova deficient.

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