A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal indicates the presence of a supermassive black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy neighboring the Milky Way. This discovery was sparked by the observation of hypervelocity stars, which move at extraordinary speeds, far exceeding the Sun's orbit. The researchers propose these fast stars were ejected from binary systems disrupted by the black hole's gravitational pull. Jesse Han of Harvard & Smithsonian expressed enthusiasm about this finding, emphasizing the ongoing efforts to locate the black hole directly with telescopes.
"Now that there is strong evidence that it should be there, you can rest assured that we are very excitedly following up," says Jesse Han of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, who led the study. "The search is on and we're using all the telescopes we can to look for it."
Researchers think these speedy stars weren't born fast. Instead, they started out as normal stars that were part of a binary system..."what can happen is one of the stars can get captured by the black hole. It is basically ripped apart from its companion."
Hypervelocity stars are going so fast that they can't sustain that kind of stable orbit..."They're just on their way out. They're never going to come back again," he says. "We're catching them as their last glimpse before they're leaving the galaxy forever."
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