(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) Black Hole Triple System

(DECEMBER-2024)

In a study appearing in Nature journal, physicists at MIT and Caltech report that they have observed a “Black hole triple” for the first time.
The new system holds a central black hole in the act of consuming a small star that’s spiraling in very close to the black hole, every 6.5 days.
The system located around 8,000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus.

About Black hole Triple

Configuration: The new system holds a central black hole in the act of consuming a small star that’s spiraling in very close to the black hole, every 6.5 days — a configuration similar to most binary systems.
But surprisingly, a second star appears to also be circling the black hole, though at a much greater distance.

The existence of a very far-off star suggests that the system’s black hole was born through a gentler, direct collapse.
How it is different from Black holes: Black holes are thought to form from the violent explosion of a dying star — a process known as a supernova, by which a star releases a huge amount of energy and light in a final burst before collapsing into an invisible black hole.
However in this system the black hole seems to have a gravitational hold on an object so far away that it is raising questions about the origins of the black hole itself.