One of the many scientific wonders that baffles many people, including many experts, is the occurrence of black holes. As black holes have been studied by many experts throughout the years, certain facts have been established to define blackholes.
A new study, however, posits that not all black holes began as stars, as opposed to the previous assumption known to the scientific community. A team of astrophysicists has found evidence linking to the formation of black holes. This new information is yet to be confirmed. Still, if the astrophysicists would be able to confirm their data, it could change the current understanding of black holes.
Shantanu Basu and Arpan Das from the University of Western Ontario has provided a study showing evidence that it is possible for supermassive black holes to form even if a massive star did not implode. Rather, the duo's research proposes that some supermassive black holes can grow out on a very fast rate over a very short period of time, and could suddenly stop growing. According to the astrophysicists, this new model can provide scientists with an explanation of how the stellar phenomena have formed during the very early stages of the universe.
Basu stated that their indirect observational evidence reveals that some black holes originate from direct collapses and not from stellar remnants.
It is a well-known fact in the scientific community that most black holes that have been charted to this day were created in the heart of massive stars, commonly with masses larger than the sun. However, the existence of supermassive black holes which measure beyond 10 or even beyond 20 times the mass of the sun has posed a problem for many astronomers. The question on how the supermassive black holes have formed, if not from a single collapsing star, could be answered by the theory presented by Basu and Das.
Basu explains the direct-collapse scenario by citing that supermassive black holes only had a short time period where the said stellar phenomenon was able to grow fast and at some point, because of all the radiation in the universe created by other black holes and stars, the production of the said supermassive black holes would come to a halt.
A number of various studies revolving around black holes in general, which includes origin, state, and discovery, has been presented over the past few years. In March 2019, astronomers have announced the discovery of over 80 supermassive black holes. In turn, the first-ever image of a black hole was captured in April of this year, as well.
