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WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood.

The news conference will originate from NASA Headquarters' television studio, 300 E St. SW in Washington and carried live on NASA TV.

Media representatives may attend the conference, join by phone or ask questions from participating NASA locations. To RSVP or obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Trent Perrotto at: trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov by 10 a.m. EST on Nov. 15. Reporters wishing to attend the conference in-person must have a valid press credential for access. Non-U.S. media also must bring passports.

Scientists involved in the research will be available to answer questions. Panelists providing analysis of the research include:
- Jon Morse, director, Astrophysics Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Kimberly Weaver, astrophysicist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Alex Filippenko, astrophysicist, University of California, Berkeley

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and further information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv


For more information about NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/chandra


http://chandra.harvard.edu 

We come in peace...

For Release: November 15, 2010

CXC


Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude et al, Optical: ESO/VLT, Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech
Press Image and Caption
Evidence for the youngest known black hole in our cosmic neighborhood has been found using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. The age and proximity of this object could provide astronomers with a unique opportunity to watch a black hole develop during its infancy.

The object in question is associated with SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 discovered by an amateur astronomer in 1979. While many likely new black holes in the distant Universe have been detected in the form of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), this nascent black hole candidate is much closer, at a distance of only 50 million light years from Earth.

Data from Chandra, as well as NASA's Swift, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and the German ROSAT observatory revealed a bright source of X-rays that has remained steady for the 12 years from 1995 to 2007 over which it has been observed. This behavior and the X-ray spectrum, or distribution of X-rays with energy, support the idea that the object is a black hole being fed either by material falling back into the black hole after the supernova, or from a binary companion.

"If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example where the birth of a black hole has been observed," said Daniel Patnaude of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. who led the study.

The scientists think that SN 1979C formed when a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun collapsed. It was a particular type of supernova where the exploded star had ejected some, but not all of its outer, hydrogen- rich envelope before the explosion, so it is unlikely to have been associated with a GRB. Supernovas have sometimes been associated with GRBs, but only where the exploded star had completely lost its hydrogen envelope.

"This may be the first time that the common way of making a black hole has been observed," said coauthor Abraham Loeb, also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Most black holes in the Universe should form when the core of a star collapses and a gamma-ray burst is not produced."

50 million light years is at the far edge of our neighborhood. Within the galactic plane, we can only see about that far before interstellar debris completely clouds our vision. High energy photons like x-rays are the easiest to distinguish at those distances, so it's not surprising that the object has been known of (if not completely understood) since 1979.

How embarrassing.

Ah... well considerably less neighborly. Relativity plays games at that distance. If you want to bake your noggin, Furiously, try wrapping your head around this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rietdijk%E2%80%93Putnam_argument). Lorentz transforms are weird at long distances, so exactly what time it is at SN 1979 C varies by a matter of weeks depending on which direction you're walking.

Until you get into a superspaceship and take a quick jaunt out to the edge of the galaxy then come back 6 years later only to discover everyone you knew is dead and 15,000 years have passed.

Well, not quite that much time. Unless part of that 15,000 earth years was spent at the event horizon of a black hole.

He doesn't know how to use the three shells, bwhaha!