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Sci Tech
‘Freaky’ space events
common
It may sound like something straight out of a science fiction movie,
but astronomers have claimed that freakish space events such as black
holes or time warps, could be happening regularly.
Traditional belief
Traditionally planetary scientists believed that most small
galaxies had a compact star cluster at the centre while giant galaxies
had a super massive black hole.
Double nucleus galaxies were thought to be extremely rare.
Now, an international team led by Swinburne University of
Technology, has examined 50 regular galaxies to determine their
composition and structure to show the double nucleus are actually quite
common.
The astronomers found that 12 of these galaxies contained a double
nucleus — that is they had both a super massive black hole and a dense
star cluster containing up to ten million stars at their centre.
Team leader Prof Alister Graham said the prevalence of double
nucleus galaxies significantly increases the likelihood of several
bizarre astronomical phenomena occurring.
The first is a phenomenon where black holes eat up nearby stars.
“When stars get too close to massive black holes, the gravitational attraction is such that they can be devoured.
“When you’ve got up to a million stars within the immediate vicinity
of a black hole, the chance of this occurring increases significantly,”
Graham said. — PTI
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