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Black Holes might just be one of the most fascinating and mysterious phenomena in the universe. They are massive beasts in terms of power, but at the same time, virtually invisible to us. But because of the research that was put into them over the last couple of decades, we’ve gone from knowing absolutely nothing about them, to getting to learn more and more, up close and personal. And well, things have just gotten crazier. Michio Kaku just announced that we’ve finally gotten a look at what’s inside a black hole, and this new information brings light to the details the world of science might’ve missed, all along. Join us as we dig deeper into black holes, and unveil what’s inside space’s “big bad.”
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We’ve thrown a lot of disasters at Earth over the years: from asteroids and aliens, to the Sun’s death. But hey, the Universe is a dangerous place, and we’re not done yet. Now we’re going to throw a black hole into the mix, and not just any black hole, but a blazar. Black holes are usually found at the center of the galaxy. The Milky Way has a black hole that is four million times the mass of the Sun. But that’s small compared to other black holes out there. How old is the oldest blazar? Why can we see some blazars, but not others? What is the Doppler effect and how would it let us know that a blazar is on its way? What are active galactic nuclei? Do radiation and gamma rays from blazars affect the Earth? How far is Markarian 421 from us?
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What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. Join us on an imaginary adventure through time, space and chance while we (hopefully) boil down complex subjects in a fun and entertaining way.
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This star is about to transform into a black hole. And we’re about to travel inside it to see what’s on the other side. The only problem is that we’ll never be able to report our findings back to Earth. Because once you go inside a black hole, there’s no coming back. So maybe there’s a better way to find out what’s on the other side. Could we use a special telescope? How would light behave inside a black hole? And why could the first image of a black hole provide all the answers?
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What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. Join us on an imaginary adventure through time, space and chance while we (hopefully) boil down complex subjects in a fun and entertaining way.
This rogue star has been traveling the Universe. And now, it’s finally entering our Solar System. But this isn’t just any regular star. It’s known as a quasi-star and is one of the biggest stars in existence. What would happen if this star entered our Solar System? And how would Earth be affected?
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What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. Join us on an imaginary adventure through time, space and chance while we (hopefully) boil down complex subjects in a fun and entertaining way.
Did you know that our universe is so big that we cannot really approximate its actual size?
Now that you can imagine how our universe is extremely big, it’s easy to grasp that it’s filled with wonder-souly massive objects. Curious to know these objects in order? Keep watching!
The Most Massive Objects in the Universe.
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Prior to stating the list of the most massive objects in the universe, it’s crucial to understand the concept of mass along with the astronomical mass units. Mass by definition is the measure of the amount of matter in an object usually measured in grams (g) or kilograms (kg), however due to the difficulties in measuring and expressing astronomical data in the international system of units (SI units); the Astronomical System of Units was developed in 1979 in which there was a redefinition of units of mass, time and length and the astronomical constants as well.
The astronomical unit of mass is the solar mass aka the mass of the sun which is approximately equal to 1.98892 * 10^(30) kg and it’s the standard unit of describing the mass of stars and galaxies.
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When it comes to cosmology, the term object is a loose concept because the universe is filled up with so many objects such as planets, stars, black holes and pulsars. However, one must ask “is any structure of gravitationally bound matter considered to be an object?” If the answer is yes, then we must consider nebulae, galaxies, galaxy clusters and the clusters of the galaxy clusters as objects as well. Moreover, we should consider the cosmic web, which is an overarching structure that holds all the matter in the universe as an object. Therefore, in this video we are introducing the most massive objects in the universe covering most of their types in descending order:
10- As you probably know, the most massive object in the universe from the beginning of time is the universe itself right before the moment of the big bang. The big bang model states that the universe at the beginning 13.7 billion years ago was in an extremely hot and dense state, just try to imagine the total mass of the universe condensed into extremely infinitesimally small point-like singularity.
9- Dark Energy; which constitutes 68% of the universe- you may wonder how on earth would energy be massive?! But thanks to Einstein’s energy-mass famous equation E=mc^(2) where c is the speed of light, transforming energy into mass is trivial. You may also have heard of the dark energy previously but let me explain its importance in detail… scientists in the early 1990s were fairly certain about some dynamics of the universe’s expansion; such that it might have enough energy density to stop its expansion and recollapse or it might have so little energy that it would never stop expanding, however, the gravitational forces were certain to slow the expansion as time went on due to the fact that our universe is full of matter and the attractive force of gravity pulls all matter together. However, in 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of very distant supernovae showed that a long time ago; the universe was actually expanding more slowly than it is today. In other words, the expansion of the universe has not been slowing down due to gravity, as everyone expected, but it has been accelerating and something was causing this acceleration. Eventually, theorists still do not know what the correct explanation is but they have given the solution a name, it’s called the dark energy.
More is unknown than is known about dark energy, the amount of dark energy is known because we know how it influences the universe’s expansion. There Are three possible explanations of dark energy, One explanation is that it’s a property of space -yes space has many amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood- Einstein was the first to realize that empty space can possess its own energy, furthermore, it’s possible for more space to come into existence. And because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as the space expands. Additionally, as more space comes into existence, more of this space-energy will appear which will be the reason that the universe will expand faster and faster. Unfortunately, there are some issues regarding this fancy model and related to the cosmological constant.
8- Dark matter which constitutes 27% of the universe.
From where the black hole is, to what it could mean for our planet and system, and more! Join us as we show you the Nearest black hole to Earth that’s been discovered!
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In the vastness of space, there is no doubt that we haven’t found everything that is out there, but when something we “missed” turns out to be a black hole that is the closest one to Earth at present? That would be something that’s kind of shocking, and yet, that’s something that was indeed discovered in May 2020, the closest black hole (currently) to Earth.
The black hole, which is lurking 1,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Telescopium, belongs to a system with two companion stars that are bright enough to observe with the naked eye. But you won’t be able to see the black hole itself; the massive object has such a strong gravitational pull that nothing — not even light — can escape it. Which is one of the trademarks of a black hole, hence why it’s so hard to find them when you don’t know where they are based on the darkness of space.
The observations also showed that one of the two stars orbits the invisible object every 40 days, while the other star hangs out by itself at a much greater distance from the black hole.
This is important for various reasons. First and foremost, if the one star does indeed orbit the black hole every 40 days, then it’s possible that the black hole is draining the star slowly as it orbits it. Black holes are able to pull just about anything into its “core” because of its intense gravity, and that includes a star. So over time, depending on the distance between the star and the black hole, the mass and energy of the star will be “fed” to the black hole, which will make the star slowly die, while it actually expands the black hole. So having a virtually never-ending supply of food via a star would be quite the catch for a black hole. And eventually, over time, they can expand to the ranks of a “SuperMassive Black Hole” via absorbing enough objects, and these black holes can be well over the size of galaxies.
Getting back to the black hole in question. The scientists who found this one calculated that the object is a stellar-mass black hole — a black hole that forms from the collapse of a dying star — that’s about four times the mass of the sun.
“An invisible object with a mass at least four times that of the sun can only be a black hole,” Thomas Rivinius, a scientist with the European Southern Observatory who led the new study, said in a statement. “This system contains the nearest black hole to Earth that we know of,” he added.
Hearing that there is a black hole only 1000 light years from Earth might feel somewhat disconcerting to some, but also very unimportant to others. Even if it was just one light year away that would be quite a distance. But 1000? That’s nowhere near us in a certain scope of the galaxy we live in. For the record, a light year is about 6 trillion miles. So this black hole is 6000 trillion miles away from us right now.
For point of comparison, ffter HR 6819’s black hole, the nearest known black hole is about 3,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Monoceros. Which would mean it’s 18000 trillion miles away from Earth. That’s a long ways away.
However, there could still be others lurking even closer that have yet to be detected; astronomers estimate that there are millions of black holes in our galaxy alone. And the fact that it took until May 2020 to go and find this new black hole that was only 1000 miles away proves once again that the universe isn’t as well mapped out and “known” as once believed, or as expected by some people in the world.
If there is one that is 1000 light years away from Earth, what is to say that there isn’t one 500 light years away? Or 100? Or 50? Or 5? The truth is, we don’t know, we’re still finding out things about our own solar system, let alone the rest of our galaxy and the grander scale of the universe.
Plus, as noted, the nature of black holes is one that they don’t “like being seen”, so for all we know, there could be a small one right next door and we wouldn’t know about it until we noticed things around it acting strangely. Not unlike what happened with HR 6819’s black hole. Which in and of itself was very special upon its discovery.
The black hole in HR 6819 is one of the first stellar-mass black holes found in our galaxy that does not release bright X-rays while violently interacting with its companion stars, and the discovery could help researchers find other similarly “quiet” black holes in the Milky Way, according to the team who found it:
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Black holes are the gravitational monsters of the Universe. They are so powerful that nothing, even light, can escape their grasp. One black hole is bad enough. But if you took two black holes and smashed them into each other, they’d be capable of changing the shape of space itself. How epic would that explosion be? And could it somehow reach the Earth?
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What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. Join us on an imaginary adventure — grounded in scientific theory — through time, space and chance, as we ask what if some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence were different.
From what they are, to what they could mean for both black holes and the Milky Way Galaxy, join me as we unravel the mystery of G objects.
So…what exactly are G objects? To answer that, we have to go to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, you know, the galaxy we live in right now? Well, at the center of that is a black hole, or to be more accurate a “radio source” that we BELIEVE to be a Supermassive Black Hole known as Sagittarius A. We technically know it’s a black hole because of readings and such, but as many scientists like to note, if you haven’t seen it or touched it yourself…it’s all theoretical.
Anyway, like you would expect from a black hole, the area around it is dark (as black holes don’t let light escape and thus they make a black mass of space) and anything that would get near it would get sucked in. But over the last few decades, astronomers have noted that there are things actually orbiting the black hole, which really shouldn’t be happening. And yet, they are, and they’re acting like objects that have never been viewed before in space or anything else.
Thus, these objects were labeled, “G Objects”, and of these objects that we have found, there are 6. There could be more, but we haven’t found them yet, so for now it’s just six, and the first two of these six were actually found decades ago.
Here’s what happened, scientists were studying the black hole and over the course of many years realized that two objects seemed to be orbiting the black hole, and yet, they weren’t acting right. The first belief of these objects in regards to what they were gas clouds. Which if we’re being honest would make sense as gas clouds are littered throughout space, including one that has the chemical that is used to make alcohol taste better (no, really, look it up.)
But there were some problems with this theory. First among them was that these two different gas clouds were 100 astronomical units across (one astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun), which made it REALLY weird that something that size would be orbiting a black hole without issue. And as they looked closer, they noticed that the clouds were getting stretched out as they were getting closer to the black hole. So in many ways, these gas clouds were acting like something else made of gas…
“These objects look like gas but behave like stars,” said physicist and astronomer Andrea Ghez of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Since the find of G1 and G2 (the names of the two gas clouds), the team led by Ghez has been studying the center of the galaxy for 20 years! And through that, they found G3-G6, confirming that there were many objects orbiting Sagittarius A…for some reason. What’s even weirder if you can believe it is the orbits of these six objects aren’t uniform in the slightest, they are vastly different. No unlike the planets in our solar system having much longer orbits than Earth.
How different are they? Depending on the object they can range from 170 years to 1,600 years! And…yes, there’s more, there’s always more, they STILL don’t know what these six objects are! How’s that for a kicker?
We are getting clues though as to what some of them MIGHT be. For example, in 2014, the object known as G2 entered a period of its orbit where it was closest to the black hole, and when that happened, some observations were made:
“G2 is a dusty red object associated with gas that shows tidal interactions as it nears its closest approach with the Galaxy’s central black hole.”
Not just that though, as they observed it from that point to where it moved to next, scientists noticed that it was changing shape based on where it was near the black hole:
“We had seen it before, but it didn’t look too peculiar until it got close to the black hole and became elongated, and much of its gas was torn apart. It went from being a pretty innocuous object when it was far from the black hole to one that was really stretched out and distorted at its closest approach and lost its outer shell, and now it’s getting more compact again.”
So what does that tell us? What does this mean as a whole? Does it truly help us determine what G2 is, or what any of the other G objects are?
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The answer to what the G objects may be might be simpler than you might suspect. Because it doesn’t necessarily have to do with what the G objects are per se, but rather, with where they are located!
Confused? I’ll explain. There are many kinds of stars in the universe, we’ve even talked about some of them here on the channel before, but one of those types of stars is Binary. Binary stars are defined as..
To that end, some scientists believe that the other G Objects are possibly also gas byproducts from fused Binary Stars.
