Two black holes found in a star cluster

The detection of two candidate black holes in a dense system of stars in the Milky Way suggests that a larger population of such objects might be lurking in this system. See Letter p.71 One cluster, but two black holes The current consensus is that a typical globular star cluster can accommodate jus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature (London) Vol. 490; no. 7418; pp. 46 - 47
Main Author Umbreit, Stefan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.10.2012
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
639/33/34
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Black holes
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
news-and-views
Science
Stars & galaxies
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Summary:The detection of two candidate black holes in a dense system of stars in the Milky Way suggests that a larger population of such objects might be lurking in this system. See Letter p.71 One cluster, but two black holes The current consensus is that a typical globular star cluster can accommodate just one stellar-mass black hole. Many more will be created, but all but one will be ejected following dynamical interactions. New observations of the Milky Way globular cluster M22, however, reveal the presence of two radio sources in one cluster, with properties typical of accreting black holes each more than ten times the mass of the Sun. This suggests that the ejection of black holes is not as efficient as predicted by most models. And it may not stop there: the authors speculate that there could be a population of tens of black holes in M22, either as single black holes or in binaries where there is no mass transfer taking place.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/490046a