Odd Behavior of Star Reveals Black Hole in Giant Star Cluster NGC 3201 | ESO

Odd Behavior of Star Reveals Black Hole in Giant Star Cluster NGC 3201 | ESO

ESOcast 146 Light: Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have discovered a star in the cluster NGC 3201 that is behaving very strangely. It appears to be orbiting an invisible black hole with about four times the mass of the Sun—the first such inactive stellar-mass black hole found in a globular cluster.

Distance: 16,000 light years

This important discovery impacts on our understanding of the formation of these star clusters, black holes, and the origins of gravitational wave events.

This short ESOcast takes a look at this discovery and its significance.

The ESOcast Light is a series of short videos bringing you the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces. 

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Editing: Nico Bartmann

Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida

Written by: Rosa Jesse, Nicole Shearer and Richard Hook

Footage and photos: ESO, Luís Calçada, spaceengine.org  

Directed by: Nico Bartmann

Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Release Date: January 15, 2018

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