MUSE Discovers Sleeping Black Hole in the Heart of a Globular Cluster
Astronomers using MUSE on ESO's Very Large Telescope spotted a star behaving very oddly
in a huge star cluster.
This star is being flung forwards and backwards at hundreds of thousands of kilometres per hour!
It's orbiting an invisible object with over four times the mass of the Sun — a hiding black hole!
Black holes are usually detected from the surrounding very bright material interacting with them.
But this black hole is invisible — only the peculiar motion of the orbiting star gives its location away.
The discovery suggests there may be many more black holes lurking in globular clusters than expected...
...and MUSE provides the best way to find them!
Transcribed by ESO, translated by —