In the universe, stellar black holes formed by the death of massive stars and supermassive black holes that exist at the center of each large galaxy have long been known to mankind. However, medium-mass black holes with mass between the two are generally considered to be the key intermediate link in the growth of stellar black holes into supermassive black holes, but only a few controversial candidates have been discovered in the scientific community before. Whether such black holes exist has long troubled astronomers.
Recently, Associate Professor Huang Yang from the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly with a number of scientific research institutions, proposed to search for high-speed stars catapulted from globular star clusters by searching for gravitational slingshot effect, providing direct evidence for the long-standing medium-mass black hole.
△The center of the globular star cluster M15 has a medium-mass black hole and a high-speed star that is "ejected" (artistic imagination)
(CCTV reporter Shuai Junquan Chu Erjia)
