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Astronomers Find Rogue Black Hole in Our Galaxy
A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal shows findings using the Hubble Space Telescope that suggest the existence of a rogue black hole in our galaxy. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, but further observations and reviews may confirm this research’s findings.
The issue with discovering black holes is that they absorb all light in their vicinity, making them extremely difficult to discover. Astronomers cannot directly observe a black hole and instead must use other methods to confirm the presence of a black hole in a given area of the sky.
One method that astronomers use to detect black holes, which is the method used by this study, is called microlensing. Because the gravitational effects of a black hole are so strong, its gravitational field can actually bend the light of stars as it passes in front of them, making them brighter than we have previously observed. Astronomers created surveys like the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) to look for signs of microlensing in order to find black holes.
The reason researchers in this study believe they have discovered a black hole is because they were able to witness a microlensing event of a star that could only be caused by something with a lot of mass and no light…
