Recent observations of the Black Hole of our Galaxy have revealed anomalous movements of gas clouds, which allows scientists to talk about the discovery of evidence of the existence of a previously unknown object in this area.
Until recently, astronomers weren't even sure if there were intermediate dormant types of black holes. Scientists studying the gases in the core of the Milky Way have concluded that the clouds are orbiting an object 10,000 times the mass of the Sun.
However, when the researchers studied the area where this object should be, they could not find anything there. The absence of stellar analogs indicates that the point object may be a resting black hole – a cosmic body that is not actively 'feeding' and, therefore, does not emit detectable radiation.
This is the fifth such candidate, located in the heart of the galaxy. This speaks in favor of the fact that intermediate-mass black holes not only exist, but are not so rare in the center of our Milky Way.
Scientists already know that there are black holes with stellar mass, 100 times the mass of the Sun. The largest black hole found in this mass range is 62 solar masses created by the merging of two black holes.
Experts also know that there are supermassive black holes, starting at about 100,000 solar masses, which can probably swell to incomprehensible sizes.
Species in between these categories – 1,000 to 100,000 solar masses – are called medium-mass black holes.
Until now, they have remained surprisingly elusive, which has led some astronomers to wonder if they even exist. These black holes emit no detectable radiation, which means researchers must look for the impact they have on the environment.
A team led by astrophysicist Shun Takekawa of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan studied the movement of high-speed gas clouds in the center of the Milky Way to learn more about this class of black hole.
They previously used gas tracking to identify a medium-mass black hole candidate spanning about 32,000 solar masses, which could create an event horizon (a spherical region of space around a black hole that no light can pass) about the size of Jupiter.
In a new model, the researchers applied this method to a high-velocity gas cloud.
This cloud consists of three small clusters, one of which appears to be a rotating, but not growing black hole.
