Astronomers Revealed a Midsize Black Hole in a Globular Star Cluster

STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists have discovered a midsize black hole located in a globular star cluster. Black holes are known to be among the most spectacular celestial objects existing, triggering scientists’ curiosity since they were first discovered. Most of the black holes which were located are split into two distinct categories. The first type includes small black holes having a mass only a few times bigger than our Sun.

The second category includes supermassive black holes which have a mass equivalent of millions of billions of suns. What we did not know is that researchers have recently uncovered that infinite space also holds midsize black holes or an intermediate-mass black hole. The mass of this cosmic object is about 2,200 suns, being hidden in a globular star cluster.

Moreover, scientists have predicted in the past the existence of intermediate-mass black holes which were estimated to weight between a hundred and ten thousand suns. Nevertheless, astronomers have only discovered a few such specimens, and they still need to analyze the findings. A midsize black hole is believed to hide the secret of how supermassive black holes reached to be so large.

Bulent Kiziltan from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics noted that they are eager to reveal more intermediate-mass black holes to establish a connection between supermassive and stellar-mass black holes. Kiziltan, the lead author of the study, indicated that the midsized black holes might represent the seeds which slowly grow to become supermassive ones.

The newly discovered midsize black hole was spotted at the center of the 47 Tucanae globular star cluster. 47 Tucanae has situated about 13,000 light-years away from our planet. This is a relatively close one when thinking about it in space terms. 47 Tucanae contains the southern constellation of Tucana the Toucan.

Usually, a star cluster is made up of thousands of stars and even more pulsars, all located in a ball of about 120 light-years in diameter. Scientists have been struggling to find whether this cluster contains a black hole at its center and they finally made it. Black holes are known to form when a star collapse on itself near the end of its life. Researchers claim that it is extremely difficult to spot a black hole at the center of a cluster because it usually attracts matter, having massive gravity.

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