Researchers say they may have found further evidence for the existence of an unusual type of black hole. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of scientists studied the images of the most extreme ultra-luminous X-ray source, HLX-1.
They say the data about the distance and the brightness of the source shows that it may contain an intermediate-size mass black hole, located some 300 million light years away from Earth.
The results of the study have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
A black hole is a region of space that has such an extremely powerful gravitational field that it absorbs all the light that passes near it and reflects none.
If confirmed, HLX-1 would be classified as an intermediate-type black hole - something astrophysicists suspected to exist, but for which there have been only tentative detections in the past.
Full article/source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11237507
