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Searching for Black Holes in Space

The Key Role of X-Ray Observations

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Abstract

Although General Relativity had provided the physical basis of black holes, evidence for their existence had to await the Space Era when X-ray observations first directed the attention of astronomers to the unusual binary stars Cygnus X-1 and A0620-00. Subsequently, a number of faint Ariel 5 and Uhuru X-ray sources, mainly at high Galactic latitude, were found to lie close to bright Seyfert galaxies, suggesting the nuclear activity in AGN might also be driven by accretion in the strong gravity of a black hole. Detection of rapid X-ray variability with EXOSAT later confirmed that the accreting object in an AGN is almost certainly a supermassive black hole.

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Acknowledgements

The outstanding efforts of many colleagues and former students enabled the X-ray Astronomy Group at Leicester to play a key role in establishing the existence of black holes in both stellar systems and in the nuclei of Active Galaxies. That opportunity was, of course, only possible by building on the pioneering achievements of other scientists and engineers who have established X-ray astronomy as a vibrant discipline in Space Science. Grateful thanks are also due to Jeff McClintock, Paul Gorenstein and Martin Ward who provided valuable comments on the draft manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ken Pounds.

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Pounds, K. Searching for Black Holes in Space. Space Sci Rev 183, 5–19 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-013-0011-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-013-0011-9

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