Scientists Find a Massive Black Hole in Milky Way

Scientists predict that there is a possibility of the existence of around 100 million black holes in the Milky Way galaxy. Previously, scientists assumed that the mass of the black hole could reach about 20 times that of the sun. But in a recent development, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found a black hole having a mass of around 70 times of sun. The development came as a surprise for the most in the scholar community.

More about the Discovery

A team of researchers from the academy was observing the night sky with the help of Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, also known as Lamost. As black holes have no source of light, its very tricky to detect one. Scientists required to wait until the black hole eats a nearby star or any large objects to locate it. 

If the black hole is not eating anything, owing to the absence of any nearby star, it becomes difficult to locate it. But recently, scientists are using Lamost to track the movement of stars in the sky. If a star is found orbiting an invisible space, scientists confirm it to be a black hole. 

During a search, the Chinese scientists found the massive black hole and named it LB-1. Liu Jifeng, a scientist at National Astronomical Observatory in China, revealed that a black hole having such enormous mass should not exist in Milky Way. LB-1 has the double mass of what scientists previously believed it to be, he added in a press conference. Now, it is the work of theorists to explain the existence of such a massive black hole in our galaxy, he said further. 

Scientist believes that the presence of such a big black hole is extremely unusual, as the star radiates lots of gases that it contains initially, just before its death. As a result, when a star dies, it has a relatively less amount of mass.