Heavyweight Black Hole Mystifies Astronomers

Astronomers have found a seemingly “impossible” black hole about 14,000 light-years away. Their observations suggest that the weird object weighs in at a staggering 68 times the mass of the Sun. While much heftier black holes, dubbed supermassive, reside in the cores of most large galaxies, theories predict an upper limit of some 45 to 55 solar masses for a “stellar-mass” black hole that forms in the aftermath of a supernova explosion.

Hypervelocity star found to have been ejected from centre of the Milky Way by supermassive black hole

An international team of researchers have found a hypervelocity star that's been ejected from the centre of our galaxy by the resident supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. The star — S5-HSV1 — is now travelling at more than six million kilometres per hour (or 1,700km/s).

But the breakup happened five million years ago when it was half of a binary star system that strayed too close to the black hole. The two stars were in a very tight orbit around each other, until the black hole wrenched them apart, capturing one and flinging S5-HSV1 at extremely high speed away from its companion and ejecting it from the centre of our galaxy.

Ancient ape offers clues to evolution of bipedalism in hominins

The fossilised remains of a newly discovered species of ancient ape suggest that it might have been able to walk on two feet, millions of years before the first humans appeared.

The finding challenges the accepted idea that bipedal walking evolved much later in the ancestors of modern humans, and that having a skeleton adapted for regularly moving around on two feet is a unique and defining feature of hominins, the evolutionary group to which we belong. Not all researchers agree with the conclusions, however, and it is not yet clear where the ancient animal fits in the ape evolutionary tree.

The newly discovered ape — named Danuvius guggenmosi — lived in what is now Germany 11.6 million years ago. The fossils show that although it had long arms suited to hanging in trees, features of its legs and spine suggest it might also have been able to move around on its hind feet.

Water detected on interstellar comet

Astronomers have spotted signs of water spraying off comet 2I/Borisov as it flies towards the Sun on a journey from interstellar space. It’s the first time scientists have seen water in our Solar System that originated elsewhere. Most comets contain a lot of water, but confirming its presence in an interstellar comet is an important step towards understanding how water might travel between the stars. Astronomers have been tracking Borisov since its discovery in August. It is only the second interstellar object ever discovered, after 2017’s Oumuamua.