Kareem El-Badry's Avatar

Kareem El-Badry

@kelbadry.bsky.social

Astronomer @Caltech.edu, studying binary stars and black holes

174 Followers  |  40 Following  |  2 Posts  |  Joined: 24.12.2024  |  1.6237

Latest posts by kelbadry.bsky.social on Bluesky

Thanks Yvette!!

By the way, my little sister is a freshman at the U of O this year. I hope she takes one of your classes in the next few years! She almost took your class (on the solar system?) this fall, but I guess it was already full when she registered.

10.10.2025 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

thank you!!

09.10.2025 05:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A figure from the paper (Figure 4). It shows the locations of known hypervelocity stars as black circles, with the predicted overdensity that the LMC would cause shown in red. Full caption:

Predicted on-sky overdensity of hypervelocity stars originating from a 6 Γ— 105MβŠ™ supermassive black hole in the
LMC. The black open circles denote the Galactic coordinates of hypervelocity stars detected in the HVS Survey, while the
grey-shaded regions mark areas excluded from the survey. The current position of the LMC is illustrated with a representative
image, and its orbital trajectory is drawn with a red arrow. The forward model incorporating an SMBH in the LMC along with
the selection effects of the HVS Survey predicts a prominent overdensity of HVS in the region enclosed by the red contours. The
overdensity arises because stars are boosted in the direction of the LMC’s orbit. This model accurately reproduces the observed
overdensity location, supporting the hypothesis of an SMBH in the LMC as a source of these stars.

A figure from the paper (Figure 4). It shows the locations of known hypervelocity stars as black circles, with the predicted overdensity that the LMC would cause shown in red. Full caption: Predicted on-sky overdensity of hypervelocity stars originating from a 6 Γ— 105MβŠ™ supermassive black hole in the LMC. The black open circles denote the Galactic coordinates of hypervelocity stars detected in the HVS Survey, while the grey-shaded regions mark areas excluded from the survey. The current position of the LMC is illustrated with a representative image, and its orbital trajectory is drawn with a red arrow. The forward model incorporating an SMBH in the LMC along with the selection effects of the HVS Survey predicts a prominent overdensity of HVS in the region enclosed by the red contours. The overdensity arises because stars are boosted in the direction of the LMC’s orbit. This model accurately reproduces the observed overdensity location, supporting the hypothesis of an SMBH in the LMC as a source of these stars.

A very fascinating paper went up on the arXiv today!

Jesse Han & El-Badry et al. reanalysed the 21 known 'hypervelocity' stars in the #milkyway.

They find strong evidence that the LMC (Large Milky/Magellanic Cloud) has a supermassive black hole at its core! 🀯 arxiv.org/abs/2502.00102

04.02.2025 08:56 β€” πŸ‘ 298    πŸ” 81    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 16

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