Posted on 10/06/2012 1:07:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster. Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from the brightest star Theta 1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow. About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was even more compact in its younger years and a recent dynamical study indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier age may have formed a black hole with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun. The presence of a black hole within the cluster could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars, The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1500 light-years would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Image Data -- Hubble Legacy Archive, Processing -- Robert Gendler]
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So are they saying a black hole 100 solar masses in size is still too small to see even at this close distance? Wouldn’t there be other evidence of a black hole beside the velocity of nearby stars?
Black holes can’t be seen at all.
That’s why they’re “black”
Yes, but I recall reading that any associated accretion disc would be visible.
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