You are a astronomer looking at the center of a nearby galaxy. Immediately you n

Question

You are a astronomer looking at the center of a nearby galaxy. Immediately you notice a fairly strong x-ray source coming from the center of the galaxy. Over the course of a few years you track the three closest stars to that x-ray source and calculate that there is an unknown mass equivalent to 2.5 million of our suns that the stars are orbiting. Describe how you would explain to someone that there is a black hole at the center of that galaxy. Notice I did NOT say prove. Just list the 2 major reasons (2.5 pts each) why you would conclude that there is probably a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy (Hint: Neither reason has to do with orbits. Think about black hole characteristics).

Explanation / Answer

There are three main types of black holes.

Primordial - the smallest of the three kinds

Stellar - the most common type/ medium sized black holes whose mass can be up to 20 times that of sun

Supermassive - these black holes have masses greater than 1 million suns combined

Since the unknown mass equivalent in the question is 2.5 million of our suns, such a heavy mass should be that of a Supermassive black hole.

Also, black holes have another interesting property-

When a black hole and a star are orbiting close together, high-energy light is produced.

A black hole's gravity can sometimes be strong enough to pull off the outer gases of the star and grow a disk around itself called the accretion disk. As gas from the accretion disk spirals into the black hole, the gas heats to very high temperatures and releases X-ray light in all directions.

The fairly strong x-ray source coming from the center of the galaxy also suggests the presence of a black hole.

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