'Needle in a haystack': Dormant stellar-mass black hole found outside the Milky Way

A team of scientists on Monday (July 18) announced the discovery of the first "dormant" stellar-mass black hole, that is spotted orbiting a star in a nearby galaxy. The astrophysicists have said that the black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud is the first to be confirmed outside of the Milky Way.

Tomer Shenar, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam said that the international debunking team has found a "needle in a haystack."

Shenar, who is the lead author of a new study, told news agency AFP, "We found a quite massive star, that weighs 25 times the mass of our Sun, that is orbiting around something that we do not see."

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Shenar added: "We've never really detected such systems before. There have been a few claims in the last years, but they have all more or less been refuted."

The study mentioned tha the team was actually looking at the skies for something that could eventually become a binary black hole - which means two black holes orbit each other after swallowing their stars in a supernovae explosion.

Scientists have noted that in the blue star, the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, a galaxy that neighbours our Milky Way, is locked in a death dance with a black hole that has nine times the mass of our Sun.

Normally, X-ray radiation detects these kinds ofblackholes. But this binary system is called dormant because it does not emit X-rays.

Why is this discovery important?

It is understood that these black holes are common throughout the universe, however, it has been difficult to find them. The discovery could also give an insight into how black holes are formed.

The experts have said that there have been several possible candidates in recent years that have been rejected.

The discovery could also give an insight into howblackholes are formed.

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