Scientists witness the birth of a black hole for the first time

Scientists have observed something that has been among the strangest things in the universe. They have witnessed the birth of a black hole. 

A mysterious bright object was observed in the night sky, back in June last year, which was estimated to be 200 million light years away. Scientists then thought that it was a supernova. However, after collecting and combining data from different observatory sources, they have now estimated that it could be a black hole or a neutron star coming into existence. They have named it "the cow".

Scientists had never witnessed such an event before. What made them even more suspicious about this object, was that it was almost 100 times brighter than a usual supernova. Also, it disappeared very quickly, after being observed (just after 16 days when it first appeared).

Although the theory of origin of black holes says that they are formed when a huge star collapse in its own gravity, but such an event was never observed before, hence, this is quite a big achievement. The NASA scientists believe that it may be a dense object like a neutron star or a black hole that is taking its shape by sucking the matter from its surrounding, which accelerates them almost at the speed of light, resulting in the formation of an accretion disk around it. And this bright glow, which was observed, could be this accretion disk of the remaining debris of the star around it.

The most unusual thing about this object was its behaviour of sudden appearance and disappearance. It achieved its peak luminosity from nothing, in just a matter of few days, and then in a similar way, disappeared too, which made scientists excited to study it. Once it disappeared from the visual spectrum of light, they suddenly switched from the usual optical instruments, and kept observing it with the help of X-ray and radio wave and other such devices.

This observation has a great significance because a usual black hole is observed with the help of the bright luminous swirling disk around it or a quasar, and hence we don't see the black hole itself. But, in this case, the black hole was just coming into existence, and hence scientists were able to look at the center of the entire bright object, i.e, the black hole itself !

Though, its distance is 200 million ly which sound very much, but actually observing an event like this at such distance,  makes it very less. Rafaella Margutti, the scientist from the Northwestern University, who led the research, said that encountering such an event at such a close distance is great, and it would also help in studying it in a better way with a better view.

The research will also make us understand how the laws of physics work near a black hole or even inside it.