Photo:Is a Composite visual and X-Ray image of M33-X-7 (a Black hole)
According to a news article at the WashingtonPost.com website, scientists have, for the first time, witnessed the birth of a Black hole. Apparently an amateur astronomer in 1979 first noticed an exploding star when he was viewing the sky one night that year. Now scientists have used X-ray telescopes to study this area of space first noticed by the amateur and concluded that the data they have collected concerning this area coincides with that which indicates the birth of a black hole,although they still assert it could be something else besides a black hole. The following statement is from the article:
"The researchers said that what they think is a black hole is about five times the mass of our sun and was formed from the explosion of a star about 20 times as massive as our sun."
To read the entire article concerning this discovery please click on the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/15/AR2010111504192.html
If you do not know what a black hole is please visit the following website for a very good introduction to this phenomenon:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html
To learn more about the black hole known as M-33-X-7 please visit the following link at the NASA website:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/07-112.html
