PrepTest 60, Section 3, Question 10
A ring of gas emitting X-rays flickering 450 times per second has been observed in a stable orbit around a black hole. In light of certain widely accepted physical theories, that rate of flickering can best be explained if the ring of gas has a radius of 49 kilometers. But the gas ring could not maintain an orbit so close to a black hole unless the black hole was spinning.
A ring of gas emitting X-rays flickering 450 times per second has been observed in a stable orbit around a black hole. In light of certain widely accepted physical theories, that rate of flickering can best be explained if the ring of gas has a radius of 49 kilometers. But the gas ring could not maintain an orbit so close to a black hole unless the black hole was spinning.
A ring of gas emitting X-rays flickering 450 times per second has been observed in a stable orbit around a black hole. In light of certain widely accepted physical theories, that rate of flickering can best be explained if the ring of gas has a radius of 49 kilometers. But the gas ring could not maintain an orbit so close to a black hole unless the black hole was spinning.
A ring of gas emitting X-rays flickering 450 times per second has been observed in a stable orbit around a black hole. In light of certain widely accepted physical theories, that rate of flickering can best be explained if the ring of gas has a radius of 49 kilometers. But the gas ring could not maintain an orbit so close to a black hole unless the black hole was spinning.
The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following, assuming that the widely accepted physical theories referred to above are correct?
Black holes that have orbiting rings of gas with radii greater than 49 kilometers are usually stationary.
Only rings of gas that are in stable orbits around black holes emit flickering X-rays.
The black hole that is within the ring of gas observed by the astronomers is spinning.
X-rays emitted by rings of gas orbiting black holes cause those black holes to spin.
A black hole is stationary only if it is orbited by a ring of gas with a radius of more than 49 kilometers.
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