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Astronomy 2e

24.6 Evidence for Black Holes

Astronomy 2e24.6 Evidence for Black Holes

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Table of contents
  1. Preface
  2. 1 Science and the Universe: A Brief Tour
    1. Introduction
    2. 1.1 The Nature of Astronomy
    3. 1.2 The Nature of Science
    4. 1.3 The Laws of Nature
    5. 1.4 Numbers in Astronomy
    6. 1.5 Consequences of Light Travel Time
    7. 1.6 A Tour of the Universe
    8. 1.7 The Universe on the Large Scale
    9. 1.8 The Universe of the Very Small
    10. 1.9 A Conclusion and a Beginning
    11. For Further Exploration
  3. 2 Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 2.1 The Sky Above
    3. 2.2 Ancient Astronomy
    4. 2.3 Astrology and Astronomy
    5. 2.4 The Birth of Modern Astronomy
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  4. 3 Orbits and Gravity
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 3.1 The Laws of Planetary Motion
    3. 3.2 Newton’s Great Synthesis
    4. 3.3 Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
    5. 3.4 Orbits in the Solar System
    6. 3.5 Motions of Satellites and Spacecraft
    7. 3.6 Gravity with More Than Two Bodies
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  5. 4 Earth, Moon, and Sky
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 4.1 Earth and Sky
    3. 4.2 The Seasons
    4. 4.3 Keeping Time
    5. 4.4 The Calendar
    6. 4.5 Phases and Motions of the Moon
    7. 4.6 Ocean Tides and the Moon
    8. 4.7 Eclipses of the Sun and Moon
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  6. 5 Radiation and Spectra
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 5.1 The Behavior of Light
    3. 5.2 The Electromagnetic Spectrum
    4. 5.3 Spectroscopy in Astronomy
    5. 5.4 The Structure of the Atom
    6. 5.5 Formation of Spectral Lines
    7. 5.6 The Doppler Effect
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  7. 6 Astronomical Instruments
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 6.1 Telescopes
    3. 6.2 Telescopes Today
    4. 6.3 Visible-Light Detectors and Instruments
    5. 6.4 Radio Telescopes
    6. 6.5 Observations outside Earth’s Atmosphere
    7. 6.6 The Future of Large Telescopes
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  8. 7 Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 7.1 Overview of Our Planetary System
    3. 7.2 Composition and Structure of Planets
    4. 7.3 Dating Planetary Surfaces
    5. 7.4 Origin of the Solar System
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  9. 8 Earth as a Planet
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 8.1 The Global Perspective
    3. 8.2 Earth’s Crust
    4. 8.3 Earth’s Atmosphere
    5. 8.4 Life, Chemical Evolution, and Climate Change
    6. 8.5 Cosmic Influences on the Evolution of Earth
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  10. 9 Cratered Worlds
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 9.1 General Properties of the Moon
    3. 9.2 The Lunar Surface
    4. 9.3 Impact Craters
    5. 9.4 The Origin of the Moon
    6. 9.5 Mercury
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  11. 10 Earthlike Planets: Venus and Mars
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 10.1 The Nearest Planets: An Overview
    3. 10.2 The Geology of Venus
    4. 10.3 The Massive Atmosphere of Venus
    5. 10.4 The Geology of Mars
    6. 10.5 Water and Life on Mars
    7. 10.6 Divergent Planetary Evolution
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  12. 11 The Giant Planets
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 11.1 Exploring the Outer Planets
    3. 11.2 The Giant Planets
    4. 11.3 Atmospheres of the Giant Planets
    5. Key Terms
    6. Summary
    7. For Further Exploration
    8. Collaborative Group Activities
    9. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  13. 12 Rings, Moons, and Pluto
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 12.1 Ring and Moon Systems Introduced
    3. 12.2 The Galilean Moons of Jupiter
    4. 12.3 Titan and Triton
    5. 12.4 Pluto and Charon
    6. 12.5 Planetary Rings (and Enceladus)
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  14. 13 Comets and Asteroids: Debris of the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 13.1 Asteroids
    3. 13.2 Asteroids and Planetary Defense
    4. 13.3 The “Long-Haired” Comets
    5. 13.4 The Origin and Fate of Comets and Related Objects
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  15. 14 Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 14.1 Meteors
    3. 14.2 Meteorites: Stones from Heaven
    4. 14.3 Formation of the Solar System
    5. 14.4 Comparison with Other Planetary Systems
    6. 14.5 Planetary Evolution
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  16. 15 The Sun: A Garden-Variety Star
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 15.1 The Structure and Composition of the Sun
    3. 15.2 The Solar Cycle
    4. 15.3 Solar Activity above the Photosphere
    5. 15.4 Space Weather
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  17. 16 The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 16.1 Sources of Sunshine: Thermal and Gravitational Energy
    3. 16.2 Mass, Energy, and the Theory of Relativity
    4. 16.3 The Solar Interior: Theory
    5. 16.4 The Solar Interior: Observations
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  18. 17 Analyzing Starlight
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 17.1 The Brightness of Stars
    3. 17.2 Colors of Stars
    4. 17.3 The Spectra of Stars (and Brown Dwarfs)
    5. 17.4 Using Spectra to Measure Stellar Radius, Composition, and Motion
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  19. 18 The Stars: A Celestial Census
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 18.1 A Stellar Census
    3. 18.2 Measuring Stellar Masses
    4. 18.3 Diameters of Stars
    5. 18.4 The H–R Diagram
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  20. 19 Celestial Distances
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 19.1 Fundamental Units of Distance
    3. 19.2 Surveying the Stars
    4. 19.3 Variable Stars: One Key to Cosmic Distances
    5. 19.4 The H–R Diagram and Cosmic Distances
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  21. 20 Between the Stars: Gas and Dust in Space
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 20.1 The Interstellar Medium
    3. 20.2 Interstellar Gas
    4. 20.3 Cosmic Dust
    5. 20.4 Cosmic Rays
    6. 20.5 The Life Cycle of Cosmic Material
    7. 20.6 Interstellar Matter around the Sun
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  22. 21 The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 21.1 Star Formation
    3. 21.2 The H–R Diagram and the Study of Stellar Evolution
    4. 21.3 Evidence That Planets Form around Other Stars
    5. 21.4 Planets beyond the Solar System: Search and Discovery
    6. 21.5 Exoplanets Everywhere: What We Are Learning
    7. 21.6 New Perspectives on Planet Formation
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  23. 22 Stars from Adolescence to Old Age
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 22.1 Evolution from the Main Sequence to Red Giants
    3. 22.2 Star Clusters
    4. 22.3 Checking Out the Theory
    5. 22.4 Further Evolution of Stars
    6. 22.5 The Evolution of More Massive Stars
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  24. 23 The Death of Stars
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 23.1 The Death of Low-Mass Stars
    3. 23.2 Evolution of Massive Stars: An Explosive Finish
    4. 23.3 Supernova Observations
    5. 23.4 Pulsars and the Discovery of Neutron Stars
    6. 23.5 The Evolution of Binary Star Systems
    7. 23.6 The Mystery of the Gamma-Ray Bursts
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  25. 24 Black Holes and Curved Spacetime
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 24.1 Introducing General Relativity
    3. 24.2 Spacetime and Gravity
    4. 24.3 Tests of General Relativity
    5. 24.4 Time in General Relativity
    6. 24.5 Black Holes
    7. 24.6 Evidence for Black Holes
    8. 24.7 Gravitational Wave Astronomy
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  26. 25 The Milky Way Galaxy
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 25.1 The Architecture of the Galaxy
    3. 25.2 Spiral Structure
    4. 25.3 The Mass of the Galaxy
    5. 25.4 The Center of the Galaxy
    6. 25.5 Stellar Populations in the Galaxy
    7. 25.6 The Formation of the Galaxy
    8. Key Terms
    9. Summary
    10. For Further Exploration
    11. Collaborative Group Activities
    12. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  27. 26 Galaxies
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 26.1 The Discovery of Galaxies
    3. 26.2 Types of Galaxies
    4. 26.3 Properties of Galaxies
    5. 26.4 The Extragalactic Distance Scale
    6. 26.5 The Expanding Universe
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  28. 27 Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 27.1 Quasars
    3. 27.2 Supermassive Black Holes: What Quasars Really Are
    4. 27.3 Quasars as Probes of Evolution in the Universe
    5. Key Terms
    6. Summary
    7. For Further Exploration
    8. Collaborative Group Activities
    9. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  29. 28 The Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 28.1 Observations of Distant Galaxies
    3. 28.2 Galaxy Mergers and Active Galactic Nuclei
    4. 28.3 The Distribution of Galaxies in Space
    5. 28.4 The Challenge of Dark Matter
    6. 28.5 The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies and Structure in the Universe
    7. Key Terms
    8. Summary
    9. For Further Exploration
    10. Collaborative Group Activities
    11. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  30. 29 The Big Bang
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 29.1 The Age of the Universe
    3. 29.2 A Model of the Universe
    4. 29.3 The Beginning of the Universe
    5. 29.4 The Cosmic Microwave Background
    6. 29.5 What Is the Universe Really Made Of?
    7. 29.6 The Inflationary Universe
    8. 29.7 The Anthropic Principle
    9. Key Terms
    10. Summary
    11. For Further Exploration
    12. Collaborative Group Activities
    13. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  31. 30 Life in the Universe
    1. Thinking Ahead
    2. 30.1 The Cosmic Context for Life
    3. 30.2 Astrobiology
    4. 30.3 Searching for Life beyond Earth
    5. 30.4 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
    6. Key Terms
    7. Summary
    8. For Further Exploration
    9. Collaborative Group Activities
    10. Exercises
      1. Review Questions
      2. Thought Questions
      3. Figuring for Yourself
  32. A | How to Study for an Introductory Astronomy Class
  33. B | Astronomy Websites, Images, and Apps
  34. C | Scientific Notation
  35. D | Units Used in Science
  36. E | Some Useful Constants for Astronomy
  37. F | Physical and Orbital Data for the Planets
  38. G | Selected Moons of the Planets
  39. H | Future Total Eclipses
  40. I | The Nearest Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and White Dwarfs
  41. J | The Brightest Twenty Stars
  42. K | The Chemical Elements
  43. L | The Constellations
  44. M | Star Chart and Sky Event Resources
  45. Index

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe what to look for when seeking and confirming the presence of a stellar black hole
  • Explain how a black hole is inherently black yet can be associated with luminous matter
  • Differentiate between stellar black holes and the black holes in the centers of galaxies

Theory tells us what black holes are like. But do they actually exist? And how do we go about looking for something that is many light years away, only about a few dozen kilometers across (if a stellar black hole), and completely black? It turns out that the trick is not to look for the black hole itself but instead to look for what it does to a nearby companion star.

As we saw, when very massive stars collapse, they leave behind their gravitational influence. What if a member of a double-star system becomes a black hole, and its companion manages to survive the death of the massive star? While the black hole disappears from our view, we may be able to deduce its presence from the things it does to its companion.

Requirements for a Black Hole

So, here is a prescription for finding a black hole: start by looking for a star whose motion (determined from the Doppler shift of its spectral lines) shows it to be a member of a binary star system. If both stars are visible, neither can be a black hole, so focus your attention on just those systems where only one star of the pair is visible, even with our most sensitive telescopes.

Being invisible is not enough, however, because a relatively faint star might be hard to see next to the glare of a brilliant companion or if it is shrouded by dust. And even if the star really is invisible, it could be a neutron star. Therefore, we must also have evidence that the unseen star has a mass too high to be a neutron star and that it is a collapsed object—an extremely small stellar remnant.

We can use Kepler’s law (see Orbits and Gravity) and our knowledge of the visible star to measure the mass of the invisible member of the pair. If the mass is greater than about 3 MSun, then we are likely seeing (or, more precisely, not seeing) a black hole—as long as we can make sure the object really is a collapsed star.

If matter falls toward a compact object of high gravity, the material is accelerated to high speed. Near the event horizon of a black hole, matter is moving at velocities that approach the speed of light. As the atoms whirl chaotically toward the event horizon, they rub against each other; internal friction can heat them to temperatures of 100 million K or more. Such hot matter emits radiation in the form of flickering X-rays. The last part of our prescription, then, is to look for a source of X-rays associated with the binary system. Since X-rays do not penetrate Earth’s atmosphere, such sources must be found using X-ray telescopes in space.

In our example, the infalling gas that produces the X-ray emission comes from the black hole’s companion star. As we saw in The Death of Stars, stars in close binary systems can exchange mass, especially as one of the members expands into a red giant. Suppose that one star in a double-star system has evolved to a black hole and that the second star begins to expand. If the two stars are not too far apart, the outer layers of the expanding star may reach the point where the black hole exerts more gravitational force on them than do the inner layers of the red giant to which the atmosphere belongs. The outer atmosphere then passes through the point of no return between the stars and falls toward the black hole.

The mutual revolution of the giant star and the black hole causes the material falling toward the black hole to spiral around it rather than flow directly into it. The infalling gas whirls around the black hole in a pancake of matter called an accretion disk. It is within the inner part of this disk that matter is revolving about the black hole so fast that internal friction heats it up to X-ray–emitting temperatures (see Figure 24.1).

Another way to form an accretion disk in a binary star system is to have a powerful stellar wind come from the black hole’s companion. Such winds are a characteristic of several stages in a star’s life. Some of the ejected gas in the wind will then flow close enough to the black hole to be captured by it into the disk (Figure 24.16).

Illustration of a Binary Black Hole. In this rendering, an orange star is drawn at upper right, with a stream of material leaving the surface on its lower left. This white stream of material curves into and joins a large disk of material surrounding a black hole, illustrated at left. Thin jets of material emerge from both sides of the disk centered on the black hole, and stream away into space.
Figure 24.16 Binary Black Hole. This artist’s rendition shows a black hole and star (red). As matter streams from the star, it forms a disk around the black hole. Some of the swirling material close to the black hole is pushed outward perpendicular to the disk in two narrow jets. (credit: modification of work by ESO/L. Calçada)

We should point out that, as often happens, the measurements we have been discussing are not quite as simple as they are described in introductory textbooks. In real life, Kepler’s law allows us to calculate only the combined mass of the two stars in the binary system. We must learn more about the visible star of the pair and its history to ascertain the distance to the binary pair, the true size of the visible star’s orbit, and how the orbit of the two stars is tilted toward Earth, something we can rarely measure. And neutron stars can also have accretion disks that produce X-rays, so astronomers must study the properties of these X-rays carefully when trying to determine what kind of object is at the center of the disk. Nevertheless, a number of systems that clearly contain black holes have now been found.

The Discovery of Stellar-Mass Black Holes

Because X-rays are such important tracers of black holes that are having some of their stellar companions for lunch, the search for black holes had to await the launch of sophisticated X-ray telescopes into space. These instruments must have the resolution to locate the X-ray sources accurately and thereby enable us to match them to the positions of binary star systems.

The first black hole binary system to be discovered is called Cygnus X-1 (see Figure 24.1). The visible star in this binary system is spectral type O. Measurements of the Doppler shifts of the O star’s spectral lines show that it has an unseen companion. The X-rays flickering from it strongly indicate that the companion is a small collapsed object. The mass of the invisible collapsed companion is about 21 times that of the Sun. The companion is therefore too massive to be either a white dwarf or a neutron star.

A number of other binary systems also meet all the conditions for containing a black hole. Table 24.1 lists the characteristics of some of the best examples.

Some Black Hole Candidates in Binary Star Systems
Name/Catalog Designation2 Companion
Star Spectral
Type
Orbital
Period
(days)
Black Hole
Mass Estimates
(MSun)
LMC X-1 O giant 3.9 10.9
Cygnus X-1 O supergiant 5.6 21
XTE J1819.3-254 (V4641 Sgr) B giant 2.8 6–7
LMC X-3 B main sequence 1.7 7
4U1543-475 (IL Lup) A main sequence 1.1 9
GRO J1655-40 (V1033 Sco) F subgiant 2.6 7
GRS 1915+105 K giant 33.5 14
GS202+1338 (V404 Cyg) K giant 6.5 12
XTE J1550-564 K giant 1.5 11
A0620-00 (V616 Mon) K main sequence 0.33 9–13
H1705-250 (Nova Oph 1977) K main sequence 0.52 5–7
GRS1124-683 (Nova Mus 1991) K main sequence 0.43 7
GS2000+25 (QZ Vul) K main sequence 0.35 5–10
GRS1009-45 (Nova Vel 1993) K dwarf 0.29 8–9
XTE J1118+480 K dwarf 0.17 7
XTE J1859+226 K dwarf 0.38 5.4
GRO J0422+32 M dwarf 0.21 4
Table 24.1

Feeding a Black Hole

After an isolated star, or even one in a binary star system, becomes a black hole, it probably won’t be able to grow much larger. Out in the suburban regions of the Milky Way Galaxy where we live (see The Milky Way Galaxy), stars and star systems are much too far apart for other stars to provide “food” to a hungry black hole. After all, material must approach very close to the event horizon before the gravity is any different from that of the star before it became the black hole.

But, as we will see, the central regions of galaxies are quite different from their outer parts. Here, stars and raw material can be quite crowded together, and they can interact much more frequently with each other. Therefore, black holes in the centers of galaxies may have a much better opportunity to find mass close enough to their event horizons to pull in. Black holes are not particular about what they “eat”: they are happy to consume other stars, asteroids, gas, dust, and even other black holes. (If two black holes merge, you just get a black hole with more mass and a larger event horizon.)

As a result, black holes in crowded regions can grow, eventually swallowing thousands or even millions of times the mass of the Sun. Ground-based observations have provided compelling evidence that there is a black hole in the center of our own Galaxy with a mass of about 4 million times the mass of the Sun (we’ll discuss this further in the chapter on The Milky Way Galaxy). Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have shown dramatic evidence for the existence of black holes in the centers of many other galaxies. These black holes can contain more than a billion solar masses. The feeding frenzy of such supermassive black holes may be responsible for some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe (see Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes). And evidence from more recent X-ray observations is also starting to indicate the existence of “middle-weight” black holes, whose masses are dozens to thousands of times the mass of the Sun. The crowded inner regions of the globular clusters we described in Stars from Adolescence to Old Age may be just the right breeding grounds for such intermediate-mass black holes.

Over the past decades, many observations, especially with the Hubble Space Telescope and with X-ray satellites, have been made that can be explained only if black holes really do exist. Furthermore, the observational tests of Einstein’s general theory of relativity have convinced even the most skeptical scientists that his picture of warped or curved spacetime is indeed our best description of the effects of gravity near these black holes.

Footnotes

  • 2As you can tell, there is no standard way of naming these candidates. The chain of numbers is the location of the source in right ascension and declination (the longitude and latitude system of the sky); some of the letters preceding the numbers refer to objects (e.g., LMC) and constellations (e.g., Cygnus), while other letters refer to the satellite that discovered the candidate—A for Ariel, G for Ginga, and so on. The notations in parentheses are those used by astronomers who study binary star system or novae.
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