gas cloud CO-0.40-0.22 tagged posts

Artist’s impression of the clouds scattered by an intermediate mass black hole. Credit: Tomoharu Oka (Keio University)

Nobeyama 45-m Radio Telescope data reveals signs of an invisible black hole with a mass of 100,000 times the mass of the Sun around the center of the Milky Way. The team assumes that this possible “intermediate mass” black hole is a key to understanding the birth of the supermassive black holes located in the centers of galaxies.

Prof Tomoharu Oka’s team has found an enigmatic gas cloud, called CO-0.40-0.22, only 200 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. What makes CO-0.40-0.22 unusual is its surprisingly wide velocity dispersion: the cloud contains gas with a very wide range of speeds...