• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Scientists Discover Never-Before-Seen Black Hole

Home> Technology

Updated 11:13 8 Feb 2022 GMTPublished 18:57 26 Jan 2022 GMT

Scientists Discover Never-Before-Seen Black Hole

A black hole hidden within a star cluster has been confirmed as one of the only known 'intermediate-mass black holes'.

Hannah Smith

Hannah Smith

A black hole hidden within a star cluster has been confirmed as one of the only known 'intermediate-mass black holes,' the first time scientists have found direct evidence of one of the objects.

The black hole, which was found in star cluster B023-G078 in the Andromeda galaxy, was originally thought to be the remnants of a previous star, but has since been revealed to be the remains of smaller galaxies that collapsed into a larger one.

Anil Seth, co-author of a study on the black hole and associate professor of astronomy at the University of Utah, explained the finding 'fills the gap' between two previously known types of black holes.

Black hole (Alamy)
Black hole (Alamy)

Advert

'We have very good detections of the biggest, stellar-mass black holes up to 100 times the size of our sun, and supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies that are millions of times the size of our sun, but there aren’t any measurements of black between these,' he said. 'That’s a large gap.'

Scientists have been searching for evidence of this type of lower mass 'stripped nuclei' black hole for decades, but had never found one, until now.

'The stellar velocities we are getting gives us direct evidence that there’s some kind of dark mass right at the center,' explained lead author Renuka Pechetti, per The Independent. 'It’s very hard for globular clusters to form big black holes. But if it’s in a stripped nucleus, then there must already be a black hole present, left as a remnant from the smaller galaxy that fell into the bigger one.'

Hubble telescope (Alamy)
Hubble telescope (Alamy)

Advert

Researchers made the discovery using data from the Hubble Telescope and and the Gemini Observatory, through which they were able to model the object's light profile in order to determine its mass.

'Previously, we’ve found big black holes within massive, stripped nuclei that are much bigger than B023-G078. We knew that there must be smaller black holes in lower mass stripped nuclei, but there’s never been direct evidence,' Pechetti said. 'I think this is a pretty clear case that we have finally found one of these objects.'

Findings from the study were published earlier this month in The Astrophysical Journal.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Science, Space, Black Hole

Hannah Smith
Hannah Smith

Hannah is a London-based journalist covering news and features for UNILAD. She's especially interested in social and political activism and culture.

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • NASA's James Webb telescope captures earliest stage of planet formation that we've never seen before
  • Scientists simulated a black hole in a lab to test Stephen Hawking's theory and had surprising results
  • Scientists left baffled after discovering lone black hole floating through space
  • $1.5 billion space probe captures never before seen view of the Sun that could change everything

Choose your content:

8 hours ago
a day ago
2 days ago
  • 8 hours ago

    NASA's James Webb telescope captures earliest stage of planet formation that we've never seen before

    The formation of a 'baby' star some 1,300 light-years away was captured for the first time ever

    Technology
  • a day ago

    ISS astronaut reveals how they give haircuts in space and it's blown our mind

    Haircut while hurtling through space at 17,500 mph, anyone?

    Technology
  • 2 days ago

    Stunning footage caught from ISS shows SpaceX craft burning up as crew return to Earth

    America's most experienced astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has spent the most time in space than anyone outside of Russia, has splashed down

    Technology
  • 2 days ago

    Surprising iPhone trick not many people know can make your battery last much longer

    The really simple hack could prove to be hugely beneficial

    Technology