Dec 4, 2024
Star system observed 8,000 light-years away may be the first direct evidence of "gentle" black hole formation.
« Either we got very lucky, or tertiaries are common. If they are common, that might solve some of the long-standing questions about how black hole binaries form. Triples open up evolutionary pathways that are not possible for pure binaries. People have actually predicted before that black hole binaries might form mostly through triple evolution, but there was never any direct evidence until now. »
