A hungry black hole can be the missing link in space evolution



The Black Hole of Intermediate Mass (IMBH) is a long sought after "missing link" in the evolution of space for astrophysicists. Scientists have recently managed to find the most probable candidate for this type of object. The presence of the black hole was discovered because a stray star was found near it and brutally died.

Researchers used two X-ray observatories and a Hubble telescope for identification. - IMBH are very elusive objects. Every potential candidate must be thoroughly examined and any alternatives must be excluded. Hubble helped in this," explains research manager, Dr. Dacheng Lin from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, USA.

It all started in 2006, when NASA's x-ray observatory Chandra and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite, which is in orbit around the Earth, saw a strong X-ray flare. It was named 3XMM J215022.4-055108.

In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Lin explains that the nature of the flare may have been two possible sources: 1) the IMBH ruptured and swallowed the star; 2) the cooling of a neutron star somewhere in our galaxy.

How do we distinguish between a black hole and a cooled down star? A Hubble telescope was directed towards the flashes to determine the exact location. It turned out that the source is not in the Milky Way, but from a dense cluster of stars on the edge of a completely different galaxy. And this is the type of place where scientists expect to find a black hole of intermediate mass.

So the famous telescope presented information making the presence of IMBH the best possible explanation for the presence of 3XMM flash J215022.4-055108. The larger class of black holes, i.e. the super-massive ones, are usually found in the centres of galaxies (e.g. in the heart of the Milky Way we have an object called Sagittarius A* and a mass 3.7 million higher than that of the Sun).

With IMBH, however, there is a problem, because black holes of medium size are not as visible as giants. They are not as active and do not have enough cosmic matter to drive them. They are also not strong enough to catch a star in the range of the gravitational field (thus causing a flash).

In order to catch such an object, one needs to literally catch it at the moment of devouring an accidental stray traveller. Dr. Lin dug through thousands of observations made by XMM-Newton with his colleagues to find a potential star victim. The force of the flashing has estimated the size of the black hole - it has 50,000 more weight than the Sun.

Of course, this is not the first IMBH candidate spotted by astrophysicists, but in this case the evidence in the form of photos from the "crime scene" is particularly convincing. - The fact that black holes of intermediate mass are such a greedy bite to explore is due to the lack of full knowledge about the evolution of this type of objects. For example, can giants like Sagittarius A* "grow" out of IMBH? - wonders the BBC.

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