Misleading indeed. And I’m surprised the article did not talk about binary black hole mergers being potential sources of such black holes, since that seems like the most plausible theory.
I thought it did talk about binary black hole merges as one source. Here's a quote from the article which seems to match what you describe:
> Inside a globular cluster, a 50-solar-mass black hole could merge with a 30-solar-mass one, for instance, and then the resulting giant could merge again. This second-generation merger is what LIGO/Virgo might have detected
Argh, you are right - the ad fold made it seem like the article ended, yet there were two more paragraphs below it.
Still, rereading the article, the main body seemed a bit coy. It kept talking about how such black holes should not exist, yet I kept thinking “hasn't LIGO detected formation of 60+ solar mass black holes via mergers?”
But perhaps I’m in an extra criticizing mood before my morning coffee.
I'm not an astrophysicist but I think I can provide a reasonably accurate answer anyway.
Basically, you get a black hole when you push matter together tight enough. This happens when some stars die, and the processes inside the star can't counteract its own gravity.
Light is affected by gravity. A black hole is an object whose gravitational "pull" is so powerful that inside a certain radius, everything gets inevitably pulled into it. This causes the event horizon, where even light can't get away.
What's inside the event horizon is not known, as far as I know, except that it has mass, charge and angular momentum
Black holes colliding is essentially no different from any other two objects colliding in space, except for the cataclysmic scale. They behave pretty much like any other object of their mass would, which means you can have two black holes orbiting each other in a binary system just like two stars would.
eesmith|6 years ago
> Inside a globular cluster, a 50-solar-mass black hole could merge with a 30-solar-mass one, for instance, and then the resulting giant could merge again. This second-generation merger is what LIGO/Virgo might have detected
joemag|6 years ago
Still, rereading the article, the main body seemed a bit coy. It kept talking about how such black holes should not exist, yet I kept thinking “hasn't LIGO detected formation of 60+ solar mass black holes via mergers?”
But perhaps I’m in an extra criticizing mood before my morning coffee.
ars|6 years ago
samstave|6 years ago
Can HN ELI5 what a black hole actually is and explain how they even come into existence, let alone that binaries can combine??
chousuke|6 years ago
Basically, you get a black hole when you push matter together tight enough. This happens when some stars die, and the processes inside the star can't counteract its own gravity.
Light is affected by gravity. A black hole is an object whose gravitational "pull" is so powerful that inside a certain radius, everything gets inevitably pulled into it. This causes the event horizon, where even light can't get away.
What's inside the event horizon is not known, as far as I know, except that it has mass, charge and angular momentum
Black holes colliding is essentially no different from any other two objects colliding in space, except for the cataclysmic scale. They behave pretty much like any other object of their mass would, which means you can have two black holes orbiting each other in a binary system just like two stars would.