Astronomers may have discovered a rare ‘missing link’ Black Hole milky way After discovering a group of incredibly fast-moving stars at the center of a nearby star cluster, if confirmed, this cosmic supermassive black hole, known as an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), would be the second-largest black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy.
IMBHs are extremely rare among black holes. Stellar Mass Black Hole Supermassive black hole Sun National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
In theory, IMBHs should be just as common as other black holes. But astronomers Finding potential IMBHs Missing Link Black Hole
Now, a recent study uploaded to a preprint server on April 4th arXiv Researchers may have found evidence of a massive intermediate-mass black hole within a globular cluster. Omega Centauri — A dense collection of about 10 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy, about 17,000 light-years from Earth.
The research team compared 500 photos of Omega Centauri, Hubble Space Telescope They then mapped the movements of about 1.4 million stars in the cluster’s center, uncovering at least seven stars that “should not be there,” the researchers wrote in their paper. statement .
Omega Centauri is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way galaxy. (Images courtesy of ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Haeberle)
This is because these stars have been found to be whizzing around so fast that they would escape the cluster’s gravity and fly off into intergalactic space, but they continue to orbit at breakneck speed near the cluster’s center.
“The most likely explanation is [for this] Very heavy objects are pulling on these stars with their gravity, bringing them closer to the Sun. [cluster’s] Lead author of the “Center” study Maximilian Heberle “The only object this massive is a black hole, which has a mass at least 8,200 times that of the Sun,” the doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany said in a statement.
Related: The Universe’s Most Elusive Black Hole May Lurk at the Center of the Milky Way
The second largest black hole in the Milky Way?
The researchers have narrowed down the possible locations of IMBH. (Images courtesy of ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Haeberle)
Omega Centauri is unusual: it’s about 10 times larger than most other globular clusters and remarkably flat. It’s so large that it can be seen with the naked eye on a dark, clear night, taking up as much of the night sky as the Moon does from Earth’s perspective.
The researchers speculate that the cluster may have once been a dwarf galaxy. Orbited the Milky Way before being pulled into the galaxy’s center. As a result, scientists have often suspected that there may be a fairly large black hole at its center.
researcher First proposed The idea that Omega Centauri might have an IMBH was proposed in 2008, when the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a high density of stars at the cluster’s centre, but at the time other researchers argued that this could be caused by a swarm of several smaller stellar-mass black holes.
But the hypervelocity stars highlighted in the new study point to the presence of IMBHs, the researchers argue.
“This discovery is the most direct evidence to date of an IMBH at Omega Centauri,” say the study’s co-authors. Nadine Neumeier If confirmed, it would be the second-largest black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, MPIA astronomers said in a statement. Sagittarius A* “This black hole is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy,” she added. “This is very exciting because very few other black holes with a similar mass are known.”
However, the existence of an IMBH on Omega Centauri has not been confirmed, and more data is needed to know for sure if it really exists. We also don’t know exactly how big this cosmic entity is, or where it is located.
The researchers believe that in the future James Webb Space Telescope This technique allows us to look deeper into black hole clusters, and we may not have to wait so long to find more evidence of their existence.
