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Welcome back, I'm Lisa and this week on NASA Now we're going
to learn more about one of our newest cosmic neighbors.
Before we get to that,
let's find out what else is happening at NASA NOW!
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NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled an
unknown structure centered in the Milky Way.
The feature spans 50 thousand light-years
and may be the remnant of an eruption
from a super-sized black hole at the center of our galaxy.
This object looks like a pair of bubbles extending above
and below our galaxy's center.
Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall
and the whole structure may be only a few million years old.
NOW, let's take a look back at the past!
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[ Mission Control ]
We have booster ignition and lift off...
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July 23, 1999 Space Shuttle Columbia was launched
with the 55 thousand pound Chandra X-Ray Observatory
on board.
This was the heaviest payload a space shuttle had ever lifted.
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is the most powerful
and most sensitive X-ray telescope ever launched.
It has given astronomers and astrophysicists the ability
to see objects previously not seen,
expanding their insight into the cosmos.
Black holes, what are they
and why are scientists so Interested?
You've probably seen movies or heard reports
but what's the real story
on these mysterious phenomena we call Black Holes.
Here to fill us in with an overview of black holes
and his team's recent discovery is Dr. Daniel Patnaude,
Astrophysicist
at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
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My name is Daniel Patnaude, people call me Dan.
I'm an astrophysicist for the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory.
Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope,
which looks at the universe in optical light,
which is the light that you and I see on a daily basis.
The Chandra x-ray telescope is looking for x-rays that come
from the very hottest and most energetic things
in our universe, such as, black holes, colliding galaxies,
exploded stars anything
that produces very energetic processes.
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What was discovered recently was that Supernova 1979C,
which was a supernova that exploded in the year 1979
and it was the third supernova.
We found that the x-ray emission
from this particular object remained remarkably constant
over the thirty years of its lifetime.
The fact that is was constant meant
that it was probably a black hole at the center
of this supernova and it was sort of hoovering up some
of the material that was around it.
If this were just a supernova that had exploded
into the surrounding material,
its brightness would have decreased with time.
What we are looking at in this particular case is the youngest
nearby black hole.
There are several reasons why this particular discovery
is important.
The first is, we know that stars explode and we know
that when a star explodes, particularly
when a star collapses on itself and then explodes;
there are two types of things that can form.
The first is called a neutron star.
The second thing that can form is a black hole
and what happens then is that this very small object,
this neutron star, continues to be crushed under the weight
of the collapsing star and what happens is the neutron star
becomes a black hole.
In the movies, black holes are portrayed to either vacuum
up everything in their vicinity
and also they are often portrayed
to act as time machines.
And this is a misconception.
Black holes do not actively going around actively hoovering
up the material that is nearby.
In fact, what happens is you cross this thing called the
event horizon.
And once you cross the event horizon, there is no chance
of escape because not even light can escape a black hole.
Now, as far as time machines black holes also don't act
in that way.
Something does happen around a black hole though
which might be a kin to time travel.
Say that you and I were in our spaceship
and we were orbiting happily around a black hole
and then you got into your space capsule and got closer
to the black hole and orbited it for a different amount
of time and then came back.
The fact that the gravity around a black hole is
so high it actually distorts both space and time.
We may have had the same time on our clocks when you left,
but by the time you get back, your clock is going
to be much slower than mine.
And some people can infer this
as time travel but that is not true.
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If we look in our own galaxy, we see lots and lots of things
that we think are black holes.
The problem is that we don't know how old any
of these black holes in our own galaxy are.
They all have to be quite old because black holes are formed
in the deaths of stars, but the particular black holes
that we observe in our own galaxy are not associated
with any stellar remnants.
So, that means that they all must be
at least a hundred thousand years old.
In this particular case, in 79C, we are actually looking
at something that is just when it was born.
So, we are looking at basically an infant black hole.
And this gives us the opportunity
to follow how it evolves as it ages.
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Did you know that distances in space are measured
in units called light years?
A light year is defined
as the distance light travels in one year.
Since light travels at 300,000 km/sec, 1 light year is equal
to 9.46 trillion kilometers.
Driving a car that distance
at 60 miles per hour would take 44.5 million years.
Now you know.
Now it's time to check out what's up!
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Take a look at the composite image shown on the screen.
If scientists interpretation are correct,
SN 1979C is the nearest location where the birth
of a black hole has been observed.
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Today we learned that black holes are real
and scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface
of the black hole mystery.
Now it's your turn!
Check out this cool activity
on the NASA Explorer Schools' Virtual Campus!
Imagine the year is 2511 and our technology has just reached the
point where we can travel through space and time
to take a closer look at a black hole.
Based on what you've seen during this NASA Now write a creative
short story documenting an astronaut's encounter
with a black hole.
Once you're finished creating your story, share it with NASA.
Send it to nasa-explorer-schools @mail.nasa.gov
Well that's it for NASA NOW, Tune in next week when we learn
about what it takes to fly a space shuttle.
We'll see you then on NASA NOW!
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NASA NOW comes to you from the Virtual Campus
at NASA Explorer schools.