ISRO's AstroSat mission observes 500th black hole birth with its X-ray instrument
India's Astrosat witnesses black hole birth for 500th time in space, records 'mini big bangs Stylised image of Astrosat in front of a GRB. (Image credit: Astrosat - ISRO, GRB - ESA/Hubble/M Kornmesser CC-BY 4.0) Black holes are mysterious, massive and dense objects from which even light cannot escape, with new astronomical instruments beginning to unravel their mysteries. Black holes are the subject of intense scrutiny by astronomers around the world, with Indian scientists contributing to the understanding of these strange objects by contributing to the understanding of how black holes are formed, using observations by ISRO's AstroSat. One of the ways black holes are born are through the cataclysmic deaths of massive stars, which result in gamma ray bursts (GRBs), explosions so powerful that they are termed by the scientific community as 'mini Big Bangs.' AstroSat has observed 500 of these GRBs so far . AstroSat (Image credit: ISRO) The GRBs dispatch intense rays ...