Intriguing member of black hole family tree

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. Research finds intriguing member of black hole family tree A newly discovered cosmic object may help provide answers to some long-standing questions about how black holes evolve and influence their surroundings, according to a new study involving Durham University. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, an international team of astronomers discovered what appears to be an "intermediate-mass black hole" (IMBH) in the arm of a spiral galaxy about 100 million light years from Earth. The object - called NGC-2276-3c - could be evidence of a missing relative in the black hole family. There is a lot of evidence for smaller black holes that contain about five to 30 times the mass of our own Sun, and for so-called supermassive black holes that live at the centre of galaxies and can be millions or billions of times heavier than the Sun.