In Brief

11 September 1999

A hole is born

THE largest optical telescope in the world has found the first direct
evidence of the birth of a black hole.

Rafael Rebolo of the Canaries Astrophysics Institute in Tenerife and his
colleagues used the Keck Telescope in Hawaii to test the theory that black holes
form from massive stars. The team analysed the chemical composition of a star
orbiting a black hole in our galaxy and found an overabundance of heavy elements
such as oxygen and sulphur. “The star is not much bigger than our Sun,” says
Rebolo. “There is no way it could have produced these nuclei.”

The researchers think the nearby black hole was once a giant star which
exploded as a supernova and contaminated the atmosphere of its companion before
forming the black hole (Nature, vol 401, p 142).