gravitationally lensed gamma-ray burst. tagged posts

Early Universe Explosion Sheds Light on Elusive Black Hole

Black hole Goldilocks
The new black hole was found through the detection of a gravitationally lensed gamma-ray burst. Image: Carl Knox, OzGrav.

Scientists discover one of the first black holes of its kind. Intermediate mass black holes (100 to 100,000 times the mass of the sun) have only been directly detected once before (LIGO, last year). They form an important link between the smaller black holes left behind after the deaths of stars, and the supermassive black holes which lurk in the hearts of every galaxy.

The astrophysicists also find that there are about 40,000 of these objects in the neighbourhood of our galaxy.

The recently discovered ‘Goldilocks’ black hole is part of a missing link between two populations of black holes: small black holes made from stars and supermassive giants in the nucle...

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