Finding the Happy Medium of Black Holes

Scientists have taken major steps in their hunt to find black holes that are neither very small nor extremely large. Finding these elusive intermediate-mass black holes could help astronomers better understand what the "seeds" for the largest black holes in the early Universe were.

The new research comes from two separate studies, each using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes.

Black holes that contain between about one hundred and several hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun are called "intermediate mass" black holes, or IMBHs. This is because their mass places them in between the well-documented and frequently-studied "stellar mass" black holes on one end of the mass scale and the "supermassive black holes" found in the central regions of massive galaxies on the other.

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Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/ICE/M.Mezcua et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Illustration: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart

The COSMOS Legacy Survey shows data that have provided evidence for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs).

Source / Image Courtesy

These so-called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) fall between well-known stellar mass and supermassive black holes.

Two separate groups of scientists — both using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory — found different populations of possible IMBHs.

One team found about 40 IMBHs in distant dwarf galaxies, which are about 100 times less massive than our Milky Way.

The other group found evidence for dozens of IMBHs in galaxies that were relatively near to Earth.

IMBHs may play a significant role in the formation of supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

For that reason and others, astronomers will continue to search for and study these elusive and fascinating objects.

An Intermediate Mass Black Hole Found in the Milky Way. 100,000 Times the Mass of the Sun.

Dragon wrote:
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/ICE/M.Mezcua et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Illustration: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart

The COSMOS Legacy Survey shows data that have provided evidence for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs).

Source / Image Courtesy

So beautiful , thanks for sharing.

Also for a second I was wondering what had happened to the webpage with these stars blending into the background :D