Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to find evidence of an elusive kind of black hole, one that’s about 8,000 times more massive than our sun.
Nell Greenfieldboyce | NPRThe star cluster Omega Centauri contains millions of stars. The movement of some stars suggests that an intermediate-sized black hole lies at its center.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.
Black holes can’t be observed directly, since their gravity pulls in everything, including light. But researchers can look to see if the gravity of a black hole is affecting nearby objects, including stars. Ultimately, the researchers were able to pick out seven stars in the center that are moving much faster than the others. These stars are actually moving so fast that they really should just shoot out of the star cluster and be gone forever.
What’s more, future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope are already planned, and this powerful telescope will be able to look for tell-tale signs of gas that’s being heated up as it falls into the black hole. of gravitational waves from two black holes colliding, an event that spawned a black hole about 150 times more massive than the sun.by astronomers, is that many stars might collide in a dense cluster like Omega Centauri and become a single very massive star. Later, that big star would collapse into an intermediate-sized black hole.
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