The black hole inside NGC 300 X-1 (artist’s impression). Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
Using the European Southern Observatory´s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers from the University of Sheffield have detected a stellar mass black hole much farther away than any other previously known. The newly discovered black hole is in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, about six million light years away from the Sun. With a mass of about twenty times that of the Sun, it is also the second most massive stellar mass black hole ever found and it is entwined with a star that will soon become a black hole itself. The team of scientists will publish their findings about this intriguing system in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The stellar mass black holes found in the Milky Way weigh up to ten times the mass of the Sun and are certainly not be taken lightly, but, outside our own galaxy, they may just be minor-league players, since astronomers have found another black hole with a mass over fifteen times the mass of the Sun. This is one of only three such objects found so far. Paul Crowther, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the paper reporting the study, said: "This is the most distant stellar-mass black hole ever weighed, and it´s the first one we´ve seen outside our own galactic neighbourhood, the Local Group." The black hole´s curious partner is a Wolf–Rayet star, which also has a mass of about twenty times as much as the Sun.
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