This object was discovered thanks to the gravitational microlensing method (Photo: NASA).

Astronomers may have discovered the first floating black hole in the Milky Way galaxy.

The death of a large star leaves behind a black hole, but the problem is that you can’t see an isolated black hole.

Now that astronomers are distorting light due to an object’s strong gravitational field (the so-called gravitational microlensing method), it is possible that it is a free-floating black hole by observing the brightness of distant stars. weather.

A compact object estimated by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley to be between 1.6 and 4.4 times larger than our Sun, is a free-floating black hole, one of 200 million black holes in the Earth’s galaxy. Milky Way.

Astronomers believe that the remains of a dead star must weigh more than 2.2 solar masses to fall into a black hole, so the researchers warn that the object may be a neutron star rather than a black hole.

Neutron stars are also very compact, dense objects, but their gravitational pull is balanced by internal neutron pressure, preventing further collapse into black holes.

Whether it’s a black hole or a neutron star, the object is the remains of the first dark star, the stellar “ghost”, discovered as it wandered the galaxy without pairing up with other stars.

This object was discovered thanks to a technique called the gravitational microlensing method.

It works by observing the brightness of distant stars because the light is distorted by the object’s strong gravitational field. With new observations, they want to find more ghost-like stars.

Another team from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore analyzed the same microlensing event and found that the mass of a compact object was close to 7.1 solar masses and could be said to be a black hole.

black hole

The Hubble Space Telescope image mass and an invisible but very compact and heavy object between Earth shines and distorts distant stars (Image: STScI/Nasa/ESA).

Determining the number of these compact objects that inhabit the Deerip galaxy helps astronomers understand the evolution of stars, especially how they die, and our galaxy.

I would like to say that this is a black hole in the end, but I need to report on all possible solutions. This includes not just low-mass black holes, but probably neutron stars,” said Jessica Ram, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ruth’s team also found potential evidence to support the new theory that black holes are not the result of supernovae, but rather the result of failed supernovae that do not emit bright light from the universe.