Missing link found between supernovae and black holes
Date: 17 November 2002
Depicts: Black hole system GRO J1655-40
Copyright: European Space Agency, NASA and Felix Mirabel (the French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)
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This artist's impression shows a black hole and its yellow companion star being sent out on a out on a long journey through the Milky Way galaxy by the explosive kick of a supernova - one of the Universe's most titanic events.
New observations made by the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to measure the motion of this black-hole system across the sky using images taken in 1995 and 2001. The results are surprising: the black hole streaks across the plane of our Milky Way at a velocity 4 times that of stars around it! This is the first direct link between black holes and the supernovae that create them.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
