News Astronomy

The nearest midsized black hole might instead be a horde of lightweights

A claim of an intermediate-mass black hole in a Milky Way star cluster comes under scrutiny

A bright concentration of stars on a dark sky.

Visible to the naked eye under a dark sky, Omega Centauri is one of our galaxy’s most luminous star clusters, boasting millions of old stars — but no evidence for a previously reported intermediate-mass black hole, according to a new study.

ESO

By Ken Croswell

Contrary to a previous report, there’s no evidence of an intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri, the Milky Way’s most massive and luminous globular star cluster, a new study finds.