New observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory seem to clinch it in favor of the black hole, astronomers announced today. As material falls in to a black hole, it heats up to millions of degrees and spews X-rays. If the object that was SN 1979c was a neutron star, the brightness of the X-rays it emits would tail off with time. But if it was a black hole, the X-rays would stay nearly as bright as the black hole gobbled new material.
Observations show that SN1979c blasted out X-rays at a constant brightness level between 1995 and 2007, definitely tilting the odds in favor of a black hole -- although the object could still be a rapidly spinning neutron star with a powerful wind of high energy particles.
Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude et al, Optical: ESO/VLT, Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech
Authors: Lisa Grossman