An article published Wednesday detailed the possible discovery of an elusive, relatively well-sized black hole within our galaxy.
Astrophysicists believe they’ve identified the second-largest black hole in our cosmic neighborhood, thanks to around two decades of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, according to a study published in the journal Nature. If confirmed to exist, the black hole would have to be at least 8,200 times the mass of our Sun and could be up to 50,000 times the weight.
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy astrophysicist Maximilian Häberle and his team studied more than 500 images of the star cluster ω Centauri, largely to help calibrate Hubble’s instruments, according to Nature. But what the team found seems far, far more surprising.
‘Something Weird’ Is Happening In Space And Scientists Are Stumpedhttps://t.co/w3icCgbwbK
— Tom Buchan (@TomBuchan8) May 24, 2022
By patching together a series of images, they were able to reconstruct the movement of more than 150,000 stars within the cluster, according to Nature. (RELATED: NASA Astronauts Stranded In Space Make Hopeful Announcement, But There’s A Catch)
Most of the stars within the cluster moved as theoretical models suggest, but those moving closest to the center of ω Centauri were moving far too quickly to be held by the gravity of just the cluster, Häberle explained to Nature. The suggested mass and weight of the possible black hole was derived from the velocities of these stars.
“We did not know before whether we would find it or not,” Häberle told the journal. “It was a little bit of a risk, and we might have found nothing.”
More research is needed to determine exactly what is causing these stars to move so rapidly. And just the thought of something being able to do this is terrifying. Imagine if our Sun, along with loads of others, was just randomly sucked into a black hole one day. And scientists can’t even say conclusively that won’t happen.
Space is scary.
