SPACE — Two new studies have called into question the size of the "impossibly big" black hole named LB-1, according to the papers published independently to the arXiv database.<br /><br />A team led by Chinese astronomer Liu Jinfeng claimed that LB-1 is 70 times the mass of the sun, bigger than the 20-solar-mass models predicted for black holes in our galaxy.'<br /><br />The papers found the same basic problem with the Chinese researchers claim: it relied on evidence that the unseen black hole was wiggling very slightly as its heavy companion star wheeled around it." <br /><br />The new studies claim that the initial team misinterpreted what they were seeing in the light from the distant system.<br /><br />Movements from LB-1 create spectral light via doppler effect called H alpha line emissions."<br /><br />The Chinese team used China's powerful LAMOST telescope to detect H alpha line emissions, then used the black hole's movements to infer its mass."<br /><br />The authors of the new studies argue that the original team did not properly adjust for the emissions from LB1's star, which also emits H alpha, according to Live Science.<br /><br />Astrophysicists El-Badry and Quataert write in their paper that after factoring in the star, the data suggests LB1 is far more likely to be a sun-sized black hole.
