Extremely Rare Black Hole Found At The Center Of Our Galaxy

The object orbits just 0.1 light-years from the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.

Author
DR. ALFREDO CARPINETI
Senior Staff Writer & Space Correspondent

Edited by
Laura Simmons



Artist's impression of a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble, ESO, M. Kornmesser

One of the rarest types of black holes might have been found incredibly close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This new black hole is of the intermediate mass class, meaning that it’s not light enough to have formed from a star going supernova. But, it is also not heavy enough to be classed as supermassive. Only about 10 such objects are known, with one of them announced just a few weeks ago.

The discovery comes from stellar cluster IRS 13 (occasionally written with a GC in front that stands for Galactic Center). It is a cluster of hot massive stars with a peculiar object at its center. Originally, it was considered that the central object was a massive star, but thanks to higher-resolution observations researchers were able to tell that it is not a star at all.

The intermediate-mass black hole is estimated to have a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The evidence comes from the motion of the stars, which move in an orderly pattern, as well as X-ray emissions and ionized gas rotating around this object at several hundreds of kilometers per second. The combination of observations across multiple wavelengths from the Very Large Telescope, ALMA, and the Chandra telescope painted a picture consistent with an intermediate-mass black hole.

The strong possibility of this being the case has widespread consequences. Researchers have long proposed that a steady diet of intermediate-mass black holes can help supermassive black holes grow. They get too close to the supermassive black hole and get gobbled up. IRS 13 is believed to have moved closer to the center of the Milky Way (and Sagittarius A*) over the last 10 million years.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/extremely-rare-black-hole-found-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy-75202