Astronomers spot closest massive black hole to Earth, say it is 'frozen in time'

Astronomers have spotted a massive black hole which is closest to the Earth and appears to be "frozen in time". It was spotted with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The cosmic object appears to be an elusive "intermediate-mass black hole" and is likely to serve as a missing link in understanding the connection between supermassive black holes and stellar mass black holes.

The black hole is said to have a mass of nearly 8,200 suns which means it is more massive in comparison to the stellar-mass black holes, which have masses between 5 and 100 times that of the sun.

The study's lead from the University of Utah, Anil Sethsaid, “This is a once-in-a-career kind of finding. I’ve been excited about it for nine straight months. Every time I think about it, I have a hard time sleeping."

Also Read:House for astronauts? Indian startup discusses launch of 'space habitat' by 2027 with SpaceX

“I think that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This is really, truly extraordinary evidence," he added.

The closest stellar-mass black hole to have ever been discovered is Gaia-BH1, which is just1,560 light-years away.

The intermediate-mass black hole is present in a collection of nearly ten million stars calledOmega Centauri, which is 18,000 light-years from Earth.

Stellar black holes vs supermassive black holes

Black holes are created on the collapse of extremely large stars as they run out of their fuel.

The 'stellar black holes' in size are only a few times the mass of our sun and the monstrous 'supermassive black holes' which have millions or billions of stellar masses.

The University of Utah's undergraduate student and co-author Matthew Whittaker said, "There are black holes a little heavier than our sun that are like ants or spiders—they’re hard to spot, but kind of everywhere throughout the universe."

"Then you've got supermassive black holes that are like Godzilla in the centres of galaxies tearing things up, and we can see them easily," he added.

Watch:Defunct Russian satellite generated space debris, threatening astronauts, space station

It is very difficult to observe the 'intermediate black holes' since the massive black holes are generally located at the centre of the galaxies.

"These intermediate-mass black holes are kind of on the level of Bigfoot. Spotting them is like finding the first evidence for Bigfoot—people are going to freak out," Whittaker said.

(With inputs from agencies)