ESOcast 146 Light: Odd Behaviour of Star Reveals Black Hole in Giant Star Cluster (4K UHD)
Astronomers using ESO’s MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope 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.
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 video is available in 4K UHD.
The ESOcast Light is a series of short videos bringing you the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces. The ESOcast Light episodes will not be replacing the standard, longer ESOcasts, but complement them with current astronomy news and images in ESO press releases.
Credit:ESO.
Editing: Nico Bartmann.
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida.
Written by: Rosa Jesse, Nicole Shearer and Richard Hook.
Music: Music written and performed by: John Stanford (johnstanfordmusic.com).
Footage and photos: ESO, Luís Calçada, spaceengine (spaceengine.org).
Directed by: Nico Bartmann.
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.