Scientists discover the first black hole orbiting a “spinning” star

Spanish Scientists discover the first binary system ever known to consist of a black hole and a 'spinning' star.Newly discovered black hole orbits a star about 8,500 light-years away that's spinning so fast its surface speed exceeds 620,000 mph.

The Be star spins at extremely high velocity, ejecting matter through an equatorial disk. Part of this matter falls on to the black hole forming an accretion disk.

"We started studying this star back in 2010, when space telescopes detected transient gamma-ray emission coming from its direction," said Marc Ribo, of the Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos of Barcelona University (ICC/IEEC-UB).

"No more gamma-ray emission has subsequently been detected, but we found that the star was part of a binary system," he added.

A detailed analysis of its spectrum allowed scientists to infer the characteristics of its companion.

"It turned out to be an object with a mass between 3.8 and 6.9 solar masses. An object like that, invisible to telescopes and with such large mass, can only be a black hole, because no neutron star with more than three solar masses can exist," said Ignasi Ribas, of CSIC in the Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio (IEEC-CSIC).

Scientists believe this object to be a nearby member of a hidden population of Be stars paired with black holes.

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