There are two types of contraband holes : little ones that form from the remnants of collapsed stars , and their supermassive counterparts at the center of galaxies . But astronomers consider there ’s a third , intermediate - sized type that we have n’t found yet … until now .
Intermediate pitch-black holes would be anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times the mass of our Sun , and debate has long dun in the astronomical literature as to whether they really survive . A new origin of cristal - shaft of light radiation located some 300 million light - years away , designated HLX-1 , might well be the long - wait intermediate black gob .
HLX-1 is the most brilliant good example ever seen of an ultra - lucent X - ray reference . Such sources are almost always black hole , but at such a wondrous length it ca n’t be a steady , stellar mass fatal fix . And yet , its placement with respect to its neighboring galaxy ESO 243 - 49 does n’t fit the greenback for a supermassive black pickle , as it ’s outside the galaxy rather of at its nerve center . So if it ’s not a modest black hole and it ’s not a huge opprobrious muddle , then that for certain leave alone only the middle choice .
Well , that would be the case , as long as HLX-1 is actually where we think it is . Astronomers realized that they might be see at a cosmic optical phantasy , in which the hug drug - ray source is actually many millions of lightsome - yr further away and it just appear to line up with ESO 243 - 49 . If that were true , then HLX-1 might just be the supermassive mordant hole at the center of a far more distant galaxy .
To try out this possibility , astronomers at the UK ’s University of Leicester tested the red shift of the galaxy and HLX-1 . Redshift is , in essence , the amount light is stretched by the expanding upon of the universe as it trip between two spot , and so it ’s a useful indicator of how far off something is . The redshifts of the two objects meet up , bespeak the black hole really is correctly next to ESO 243 - 49 , and , in all likelihood , it really must be average - sized .
It ’s indecipherable what the seeable swooning source is that surrounds HLX-1 , but the two leave campaigner only bolster up the argument that this really is a mid - sized black fix . uranologist call up the Christ Within is either coming from a dwarf extragalactic nebula or a star cluster , and those are also the two most probable localization such a black hole would be found .
[ arXivviaDiscovery News ]
AstronomyBlack holesMad astronomyScienceSpace
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