An Unusual Black Hole Could Change What We Know about Astrophysics

Astronomers in China have recently found an unexpected black hole, much larger than any thought to exist in our galaxy — what’s its story, and what could it mean for the future of astronomy?

The Milky Way galaxy is thought to be home to around 100 million stellar-mass black holes, formed during the deaths of massive stars. Astronomers and astrophysicists concluded years ago that such black holes should have masses no greater than around 20 times that of the Sun. That idea has now been shattered by the discovery of a black hole with three-and-a-half times that projected upper mass.

Sitting 15,000 light years from Earth sits a black hole with 70 times the mass of the Sun. Discovered by researchers at the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC) (managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences), this object, dubbed LB-1, shatters ideas about large, stellar-mass black holes.

Making the Invisible Visible

Until recently, astronomers were only able to detect stellar-mass black holes by spotting powerful emissions of X-ray light produced as matter spiraled around the enigmatic object. However, most black holes formed in the deaths of stars do not produce powerful X-ray signals, and only a couple dozen stellar-mass black holes have been found in the Milky Way.

Using the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), researchers examined stars orbiting with an invisible companion, in a quest to find additional black holes which formed from massive dead stars.

The idea of finding black holes using this method is not new — the concept was first proposed by English scientist John Michell in 1783. However, the technology needed to perform these searches has only been available to astronomers in the last few years.

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