Hubble Observation of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

Esahubble_heic2005c_1024

esahubble_heic2005c March 31st, 2020

Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Lin (University of New Hampshire)

This Hubble Space Telescope image identified the location of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), weighing over 50 000 times the mass of our Sun (making it much smaller than the supermassive black holes found in the centres of galaxies). The black hole, named 3XMM J215022.4055108, is indicated by the white circle. This elusive type of black hole was first identified via a telltale burst of X-rays emitted by hot gas from a star as it was captured and destroyed by the black hole. Hubble was needed to pinpoint the black holes location in visible light. Hubbles deep, high-resolution imaging shows that the black hole resides inside a dense cluster of stars that is far beyond our Milky Way galaxy. The star cluster is in the vicinity of the galaxy at the centre of the image. Much smaller images of distant background galaxies appear sprinkled around the image, including a face-on spiral just above the central foreground galaxy. This photo was taken with Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/heic2005c/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
3XMM J215022.4055108
Subject - Distant Universe
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Black Hole
Esahubble_heic2005c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 21h 50m 22.2s
DEC = -5° 50’ 58.5”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
0.7 x 0.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Aquarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Grayscale Hubble (ACS) Optical (i) 775.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Grayscale
Esahubble_heic2005c_1280
×
ID
heic2005c
Subject Category
D.3.1.10  
Subject Name
3XMM J215022.4055108
Credits
NASA, ESA, and D. Lin (University of New Hampshire)
Release Date
2020-03-31T19:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/heic2005c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS
Color Assignment
Grayscale
Band
Optical
Bandpass
i
Central Wavelength
775
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
327.592461593, -5.84958970167
Reference Dimension
1327.0, 1327.0
Reference Pixel
663.5, 663.5
Scale
-8.33823186419e-06, 8.33823186419e-06
Rotation
0.039999999999999911
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Email
outreach@stsci.edu
Telephone
410-338-4444
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic2005c
Metadata Date
2020-03-17T16:15:12-04:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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