Black Hole and Red Dwarf Orbit Each Other at Dizzying Speed
ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every 2.4 hours, smashing the previous record. The red dwarf orbits at a speed of two million kilometers per hour, making it the fastest star ever seen in a binary system. The system was first discovered by NASA's Swift space telescope, with follow-up observations by the Japanese MAXI instrument on the International Space Station, NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, ESA's XMM-Newton and ESO's ground-based Very Large Telescope.
Comments:
Can not comprehend these orbital speeds...<br>Great article, as usual !<br>Pete Hallock<br>California
<br>Pete:<br><br>Thanks for the kind words.<br><br>I hope all of the folks on Astromart enjoy reading the news postings and find these topics as interesting as I do.<br><br>At times I'll try to explain the science behind the discoveries as best as I can, but frankly even the experts who "live and breathe" this stuff often have a difficult time reconciling their findings with what they "think" they know.<br><br>It seems that the more we learn about the Universe, the more we realize how little we really do know.<br><br>Thanks again,<br><br>Guy Pirro <br><br><br><br><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="italic"><i>Peter Hallock said:</i><br><br>Can not comprehend these orbital speeds...<br>Great article, as usual !<br>Pete Hallock<br>California</div></blockquote>
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