This year, Hubble made discoveries that will help us better understand the secrets of black holes.

For example, astronomers have reached important conclusions by studying Omega Centauri, a globular star cluster held together by mutual gravitational forces. Analyzing 500 images taken by Hubble over two decades, scientists found strong evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) pulling the cluster's stars towards it.

Since the number of black holes of similar size is quite limited, this discovery stands out as one of the most powerful intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates in our cosmic neighborhood.

The black hole is located 17,700 light-years away, closer than the 4.3 million solar mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy (26,000 light-years away).

Image description:

A collection of red, white and blue colored stars on the black background of space.

 

Image credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Maximilian Häberle (MPIA)