近日，德国马克斯·普朗克天文研究所的Maximilian Häberle及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们观测到半人马座ω中质量黑洞周围快速移动的恒星。相关研究成果已于2024年7月10日在国际权威学术期刊《自然》上发表。

该研究团队报道了在半人马座ω中心3弧秒(0.08%)的7颗快速移动恒星的观测结果。这些快速移动的恒星的速度明显高于星团中心的预期逃逸速度，因此它们的存在只能用一个巨大的黑洞来解释。仅从速度上，研究人员就可以推断出黑洞质量的一个稳定下限，大约为8,200M_☉，这使它成为一个在局部宇宙中存在中等质量黑洞的好例子。

据悉，黑洞被发现的质量范围很广，从质量为5-150太阳质量(M_☉)的恒星残骸，到质量为M>10⁵M_☉的星系中心。然而，只有少数有争议的候选黑洞存在于150M_☉到10⁵M_☉之间。确定这些中等质量黑洞的数量是理解早期宇宙中超大质量黑洞形成的重要一步。几项研究声称在半人马座(银河系中质量最大的球状星团)中心发现了一个黑洞。然而，由于恒星质量黑洞的可能质量贡献，它们对星团中心的敏感性以及缺乏超过逃逸速度的快速移动恒星，这些研究受到了质疑。

附：英文原文

Title: Fast-moving stars around an intermediate-mass black hole in ω Centauri

Author: Hberle, Maximilian, Neumayer, Nadine, Seth, Anil, Bellini, Andrea, Libralato, Mattia, Baumgardt, Holger, Whitaker, Matthew, Dumont, Antoine, Alfaro-Cuello, Mayte, Anderson, Jay, Clontz, Callie, Kacharov, Nikolay, Kamann, Sebastian, Feldmeier-Krause, Anja, Milone, Antonino, Nitschai, Maria Selina, Pechetti, Renuka, van de Ven, Glenn

Issue&Volume: 2024-07-10

Abstract: Black holes have been found over a wide range of masses, from stellar remnants with masses of 5–150 solar masses (M_☉), to those found at the centres of galaxies with M>10⁵M_☉. However, only a few debated candidate black holes exist between 150M_☉ and 10⁵M_☉. Determining the population of these intermediate-mass black holes is an important step towards understanding supermassive black hole formation in the early universe. Several studies have claimed the detection of a central black hole in ω Centauri, the most massive globular cluster of the Milky Way. However, these studies have been questioned because of the possible mass contribution of stellar mass black holes, their sensitivity to the cluster centre and the lack of fast-moving stars above the escape velocity. Here we report the observations of seven fast-moving stars in the central 3arcsec (0.08pc) of ω Centauri. The velocities of the fast-moving stars are significantly higher than the expected central escape velocity of the star cluster, so their presence can be explained only by being bound to a massive black hole. From the velocities alone, we can infer a firm lower limit of the black hole mass of about 8,200M_☉, making this a good case for an intermediate-mass black hole in the local universe.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07511-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07511-z