Produced by: Manoj Kumar
The elusive intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri may actually be a cluster of stellar-mass black holes, as recent findings suggest.
Astronomers once believed a 6,000-solar-mass black hole explained Omega Centauri’s star velocities. New pulsar data challenges this theory.
Using pulsars, spinning neutron stars emitting radiation beams, researchers traced gravitational fields to study Omega Centauri’s core.
High-speed stars at Omega Centauri’s center hinted at a massive black hole but now point to clustered stellar-mass black holes.
This new study refines a 20-year debate on intermediate black holes, offering insights into their elusive nature and cosmic role.
Intermediate-mass black holes bridge stellar and supermassive black holes, but evidence of their existence remains unproven.
Interactions within dense star clusters, such as Omega Centauri, likely create stellar-mass black hole clusters.
Data from the Hubble Space Telescope and pulsar timing arrays helped distinguish between black hole clusters and a single massive entity.
Astronomers believe advanced pulsar analysis and future missions will eventually uncover intermediate-mass black holes.
The team’s research, led by Justin Read and Andrés Bañares Hernández, is set to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.