When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commission. An illustration shows an intermediate-mass black hole in space. | Credit: Robert Lea For decades, astronomers have searched with little joy for signs of “missing link” black holes—black holes with masses between “stellar-mass black holes” and “supermassive black holes.”… Read More »
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the closest supermassive black hole ever seen to Earth, a cosmic titan “frozen in time.” As an elusive example of an “intermediate-mass black hole,” the object could serve as a missing link in understanding the connection between stellar mass and supermassive black holes. The black hole appears… Read More »
Researchers have discovered that elusive intermediate-mass black holes can form in dense star clusters containing tens of thousands to millions of tightly packed stars, called “globular clusters.” An intermediate-mass black hole has a mass between 100 and 10,000 suns. They are heavier than solar-mass black holes, which have masses between 10 and 100 solar masses,… Read More »