Astronomers have spotted two black holes which defy the laws of physics as they are consuming stars at a pace which has never been seen before. Researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered the black holes “devouring” all that surrounds them, with the resulting gas emanating from them exceeding wind speeds of almost a quarter of the speed of light – 70,000km/s. The two black holes are a type of binary system – which is where a black hole, neutron star or white dwarf feeds on gas from a companion star – known as ultra-luminous x-ray sources.
Ciro Pinto, lead author of the research published in Nature, said: “We think these so-called ultra-luminous x-ray sources are special binary systems, sucking up gas at a much higher rate than an ordinary x-ray binary. Some of the sources host highly magnetized neutron stars, while others might conceal the long-sought after intermediate mass black holes, which have masses around 1000 times the mass of the sun. But in the majority of cases, the reason for their extreme behavior is still unclear.”
The team from Cambridge used data from the European Space Agency (ESA) XMM-Newton space observatory and noted that two black holes within a 22 billion light year radius of the Milky Way were emitting gas from their source at 70,000km/s. Professor Pinto continued: “This is the first time we’ve seen winds streaming away from ultra-luminous x-ray sources. And the very high speed of these outflows is telling us something about the nature of the compact objects in the sources, which are frantically devouring matter.”