fatal holes can be really , really bounteous – supermassive , if you will – and they can also be quite little , relatively speaking . But do any exist between these two extreme ? Finding grounds for such mid - sized black holes has been difficult until now .
But a new written report write inAstrophysical Journal Lettershas found grounds for such an intermediate - batch disastrous hole , roughly 5,000 times the mass of the Sun . For comparison , supermassive dark holes at the midpoint of galaxies measure up to several billion times the Sun ’s mass , while stellar mass black holes are just a few XII times the mass of the Sun .
This latest discovery , by a team from the University of Maryland ( UMD ) , adds to about a half - dozen other intermediate black hole candidates that had been found before . It has been name NGC1313X-1 , found in the Galax urceolata NGC1313 about 14 million loose - years from Earth . It was find using data point from ESA ’s XMM - Newton orbiter , which was able to blemish the ultraluminous X - rays do from the black muddle .
" This solvent provides support to the estimate that calamitous holes exist on all size of it scales,“saidlead author Dheeraj Pasham , a postdoctoral associate degree at the Joint Space - Science Institute , a research partnership between UMD ’s Departments of Astronomy and Physics and NASA Goddard .
Some of this same squad had get hold a like black maw last year , weighing 400 times the mass of the Sun , using NASA ’s Rossi X - beam Timing Explorer ( RXTE ) satellite . But Pasham said that subsequent determination like this are call for to confirm the new class of disgraceful hole . " When you describe something for the first time , there is always some doubt , " he said . " place a second candidate with a different legal instrument puts weight behind both findings and gives us confidence in our technique . "
This black pickle was also found to have a pair of repeat flare , one flashing 27.6 times per minute and the other 17.4 times per minute , a proportion of exactly 3:2 . While the cause of these flashes of light is not have intercourse , the 3:2 ratio is thought to be common to likewise sized or smaller opprobrious holes .
In 2016 , NASA is plan to launch a unexampled X - ray telescope called theNeutron Star Interior Composition Explorer(NICER ) , which the team go for to use to study their new intermediate black kettle of fish nominee – and others – further .
