ESA's Integral discovers hidden black holes (Forwarded)

Dear Joseph Lazio:

"Joseph Lazio" wrote in message
...
"dc" == dlzc@aol com \(formerly\) writes:

Integral detected the first of these objects, called
IGRJ16318-4848, on 29 January 2003. Although astronomers did not
know its distance, they were sure it was in our Galaxy. Also, after
some analysis, researchers concluded that the new object could be a
binary system comprising a compact object, such as a neutron star
or a black hole, and a very massive companion star.

dc Was there a direction for this system?

Yes, its name. The source is located at 16h 31.8m, -48d 48' (J2000).
This is in the constellation Norma. The spiral disk of the Milky Way
Galaxy runs through the constellation Norma, hence the comment in the
press release that this source is likely to be in the Galaxy.

Thanks!

dc Looks like a possible candidate for Dark Matter, except that it
dc does certainly affect light directly...

If they have uncovered a previously unknown class of objects, then,
yes, this would be a form of dark matter. However, it would be
baryonic dark matter, which from other observations (e.g., cosmic
nucleosynthesis) we already know is not the main form of dark matter.

David A. Smith