Black holes remain those mysterious space objects that can absorb everything, including the light. Some time ago, scientists theorized the existence of mini black holes, even though they had no evidence of them. Now, astronomers confirmed the presence of those mini black holes.
“We’re pretty sure that there must be many, many of these [mini black holes] in binary systems with stars out there in the galaxies, just that we haven’t found them because they’re hard to find. It’s always interesting to try to find things that can’t be seen,” explained Todd Thompson, from The Ohio State University, for Live Science.
The scientists wondered if there are some low-mass black holes. These objects would not emit the same telltale X-ray signals as the other black holes. Hypothetically, these mini black holes would only exist in binary systems. That seems to be accurate, according to the last study in this field.
Astronomers Confirmed The Presence Of Mini Black Holes
Employing the data collected by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), astronomers managed to study for proof of mini black holes in the companion stars in binary systems.
Thanks to APOGEE, the scientists had the chance to explore about 100,000 stars in the Universe, and they could explore the brightness changes of stars that could orbit black holes. They also used the so-called ASAS-SN instrument in such an endeavor. That’s how they spotted an object with a mass of about 2.6 times the mass of the Sun.
“This is most likely a [mini black hole] because it’s too massive to be a neutron star unless it’s some sort of unusual star. The findings sound very reasonable,” even though they were totally unexpected, said Dejan Stojkovic from the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. According to the scientist, mini black holes are real.