Vocabulary:
- inconceivable /in-kuhn-SEE-vuh-buh l/
- exquisite /ik-SKWIZ-it/
- momentum /moh-MEN-tuh m/
- exclude /ik-SKLOOD/
- scattered /SKAT-erd/
[adjective] impossible to imagine or think of
It is inconceivable that the man walked twenty miles without shoes in freezing weather.
[adjective] very beautiful and delicate
The painter was known for his exquisite works of art.
[noun] the force that keeps an object moving or keeps an event developing after it has started
As the ball rolled down the hill, its momentum increased.
[verb] to intentionally not include something
The team decided to exclude him from the game.
[adjective] covering a wide area
Broken glass lay scattered over the floor.
It is very inconceivable not to express exquisite words when witnessing photos of space. The pictures of planets, galaxies, asteroids, and nebulas can give a conclusion that these are wonderful creations — a mixture of science and art. And most of our space explorers are still finding new celestial bodies that amaze and frighten people at the same time.
A new black hole 1,000 light-years away from Earth was discovered by a group of astronomers. This will be the closest celestial neighbor that we have so far. Scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile ascertained that the cosmic body that they saw is a black hole. They based it through the movement of its neighboring stars, according to the new study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Scientists were trying to pick up the eccentric behavior of the two stars in a system called HR 6819. They are both in the same system and identical in mass and size, but it moves individually. Thomas Rivinius, an ESO scientist who started the study, said: “One of them is rotating very rapidly, so much that it’s almost flying apart ”. Both of the stars are moving through space at different momentum. The astronomers were curious about this two-star system for years. Some of them are thinking that there may be another object nearby, causing the two stars to move differently.
After years of conjecture, Rivinius and his team decided to review with ESO’s La Silla Observatory. The team realized that the stars looked to be orbiting around a celestial object that was about four times or as gigantic as the Sun. But as when they observed it for the first time, there was not anything in the middle of the system, either a star that is hard to see or a black hole. “We could exclude any type of star with that mass being present,” says Rivinius. “So if there’s something with that mass in the system, it must be a black hole.”
Most people are afraid of black holes. But there’s nothing to worry because even though the system is close enough to Earth and can be seen with naked eyes, this black hole is a thousand light-years away and it won’t be a threat to Earth. On the positive side, it is an amazing discovery that there might be even more black holes scattered all over the universe, and even our galaxy.
A new black hole 1,000 light-years away from Earth was discovered by a group of astronomers. This will be the closest celestial neighbor that we have so far. Scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile ascertained that the cosmic body that they saw is a black hole. They based it through the movement of its neighboring stars, according to the new study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Scientists were trying to pick up the eccentric behavior of the two stars in a system called HR 6819. They are both in the same system and identical in mass and size, but it moves individually. Thomas Rivinius, an ESO scientist who started the study, said: “One of them is rotating very rapidly, so much that it’s almost flying apart ”. Both of the stars are moving through space at different momentum. The astronomers were curious about this two-star system for years. Some of them are thinking that there may be another object nearby, causing the two stars to move differently.
After years of conjecture, Rivinius and his team decided to review with ESO’s La Silla Observatory. The team realized that the stars looked to be orbiting around a celestial object that was about four times or as gigantic as the Sun. But as when they observed it for the first time, there was not anything in the middle of the system, either a star that is hard to see or a black hole. “We could exclude any type of star with that mass being present,” says Rivinius. “So if there’s something with that mass in the system, it must be a black hole.”
Most people are afraid of black holes. But there’s nothing to worry because even though the system is close enough to Earth and can be seen with naked eyes, this black hole is a thousand light-years away and it won’t be a threat to Earth. On the positive side, it is an amazing discovery that there might be even more black holes scattered all over the universe, and even our galaxy.
Comprehension Questions:
- What is the distance of the newly-discovered black hole to our planet?
- How did the scientists determine that the celestial body that they saw is a black hole?
- What is HR 6819 based on the scientists’ findings?
- What made the stars similar to one another? Different from each other?
- According to the article, what did the team realize after studying the stars?
Discussion Questions:
- What can you say about the new discovery of the astronomers about the black hole near ours? Explain your answer.
- Do you have any ideas about black holes? Elaborate and give some examples.
- How can a black hole relate to a star?
- Do you believe there are still black holes near our planet or in our galaxy? Explain your answer.
- In your own opinion, can black holes be a threat to our planet? Why or why not?