In 2008, scientists published a study suggesting that there was a black hole at the center of the spherical Omega Centauri cluster. However, new research refutes this conclusion.
Omega Centauri
Researchers from the University of Surrey have recently published a study suggesting that there is no intermediate-mass black hole at the center of the Omega Centauri globular cluster, but only a few much smaller objects. It has become a new page in a dispute that has been going on for a couple decades.
Omega Centauri is the Milky Way’s brightest globular cluster and contains tens of thousands of stars. It was once the nucleus of a dwarf galaxy absorbed into our own. Not surprisingly, the scientists hoped to find one of the most mysterious objects there, a black hole of intermediate mass.
Now astronomers know two types of objects of this class: stellar mass, which are formed as a result of the collapse of luminaries and supermassive black holes, which are located in the centers of galaxies. Current astrophysical theories indicate that there should also exist objects with masses that are hundreds to hundreds of thousands of times solar, but we have found extremely few of them so far.
And in 2008, researchers analyzed the speed of stars in the Omega Centauri cluster and concluded that in its center was a black hole with a mass of 40,000 solar. Then, this discovery was repeatedly questioned, and the controversy about it has continued for many years.
New study
And now there is a new study that disproves the existence of an intermediate-mass black hole at the center of Omega Centauri. For this, as before, the scientists took data on the motion of stars within the cluster, but this time supplemented it with data on the dynamics of pulsars.
Pulsars are neutron stars that emit radiation in narrow beams at short intervals. At the same time, they are extremely dense objects making up to 700 rotations per second around their own axis.
Because the emission period of pulsar beams remains constant and accurate over long periods of time, scientists can determine their motion in space with high accuracy. And these data let the researchers conclude that there was no black hole of intermediate mass in the Omega Centauri cluster. Instead, there are only a few much smaller objects.
Provided by phys.org
