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Old 04-April-2008, 05:31 PM
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Default Black Hole Discovered In Center Of Enigmatic Omega Centauri
Black Hole Discovered In Center Of Enigmatic Omega Centauri

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A new discovery has resolved some of the mystery surrounding Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. Images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and data obtained by the GMOS spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile show that Omega Centauri appears to harbour an elusive intermediate-mass black hole in its centre. "This result shows that there is a continuous range of masses for black holes, from supermassive, to intermediate-mass, to small stellar mass types", explained astronomer Eva Noyola of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and leader of the team that made the discovery.
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Old 04-April-2008, 05:32 PM
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WOW... blackhole in a G.C, now that is something.
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Old 05-April-2008, 04:45 AM
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it's like having a small little galaxy just sitting there, complete with a black hole at the center of it all.
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Old 05-April-2008, 04:03 PM
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In essence, Omega Centauri is what's left of a dwarf galaxy (probably a small spiral) after a few trips through the Milky Way!

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Note 1: I should have read the linked article first. It said what I said.
Note 2: The BA has a nice article about this on his blog.
Note 3: Nit pick.
Quote:
Intermediate-mass black holes may be rare and exist only in former dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer stars...
Might be better said as "former dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer stars and current dwarf galaxies"!
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Old 05-April-2008, 05:56 PM
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As Captain K says, says, there is a hypothesis that Omega Centauri is not a "true" globular cluster but the core of a galaxy torn apart by the Milky Way. Finding a black hole in its center is a point in favor of this hypothesis.
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