Second-Largest Black Hole ??

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Doum
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Second-Largest Black Hole ??

Post by Doum » Sat Sep 09, 2017 2:19 pm

Researchers have found what appears to be the second-largest black hole in the Milky Way, which falls into a rare, intermediate-mass category.

A newly discovered object may be the second-largest black hole in the Milky Way, weighing in at about 100,000 times the mass of the sun.

Now, scientists think they may have found an intermediate-mass black hole that's about 195 light-years from the core of the Milky Way.

https://www.space.com/38076-milky-way-f ... -hole.html

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bystander
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Re: Second-Largest Black Hole ??

Post by bystander » Sat Sep 09, 2017 2:49 pm

Millimetre-Wave Emission from an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Candidate in the Milky Way - Tomoharu Oka et al
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Re: Second-Largest Black Hole ??

Post by MargaritaMc » Sat Sep 09, 2017 4:58 pm

AAAS Science: Long-rumored midsized black hole may be hiding out in the Milky Way

By Daniel Clery
Sep. 4, 2017
Astronomers have found the best evidence yet for the existence of a midsized black hole—long-rumored objects bigger than the small black holes formed from a single star, yet far smaller than the the giant ones lurking at the centers of galaxies—and it’s hiding out in our own Milky Way. If the discovery is confirmed, it could indicate that our galaxy has grown by cannibalizing its smaller neighbors.

“It’s a very careful paper and they have gorgeous data. It’s the most promising evidence so far” for an intermediate mass black hole, says astronomer Kevin Schawinski of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
[...] Astronomers have long found evidence for small, star-sized black holes—up to about 10 times the sun’s mass—and supermassive ones, containing millions or billions of solar masses, in galactic cores.

But intermediate-sized black holes have eluded detection. The best candidates so far have been so-called ultraluminous x-ray sources in nearby galaxies. But researchers are divided over whether these are really midsized black holes, shining bright as they imbibe lots of surrounding gas, or smaller ones ingesting at a superfast rate.

Last year, a team led by Tomoharu Oka of Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, reported finding a peculiar cloud of molecular gas, called CO-0.40-0.22, near the center of our Milky Way. Gas in the cloud, detected with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s 45-meter Nobeyama radio telescope, was moving with a very wide range of velocities, some of it so fast that the team suspected something very massive was hiding there. Simulations of the gas movements suggested it harbored a black hole of 100,000 solar masses.

[...]
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
— Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS

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