The ghostly black hole may have been discovered by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley

A research team at the University of California, Berkeley, led by graduate student Casey Lam and associate professor of astronomy Jessica Lou, may have discovered the first “free-floating” black hole, Science Daily reported.

According to the publication, they estimate that this invisible object, OB110462, is between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of the sun and is at a distance of 2280 to 6260 light years. So far, researchers say it could be a neutron star, a city-sized star that is born when it’s massive, the stars collapse and die. Whether it’s a black hole or a neutron star, Science Daily reports that the mysterious object is the first “star ghost” to be discovered, floating in space without an accompanying star.

“This is the first free-floating black hole or neutron star detected by gravitational microlensing,” Lou told the publication. Lou has been looking for free-floating black holes since 2008 and observes OB110462 from 2020. With microlensing, we can explore these lonely, compact objects and weigh them. I think we’ve opened a new window to them with dark objects that can’t be seen any other way. “Although black holes are usually invisible, researchers can use gravitational microlens to see how they distort and distort light from distant stars with powerful its gravitational field.

According to the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, black holes are “one of the most exotic phenomena in astrophysics.” Their website says there are approximately 100 million star-black holes in the Milky Way galaxy, and Science Daily reports that the UC Berkeley team now estimates that there are 200 million black holes. The outcome says determining how much there is in common will help astronomers better understand how stars die – potentially shedding more light on the evolution of our galaxy.

For now, Lou’s team says it is not possible to determine whether OB110462 is a black hole or a neutron star, but hopes to gather more data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and conduct more detailed analysis later.

“As much as we want to say that this is definitely a black hole, we need to report on all the decisions that have been made,” Lou told Science Daily. “This includes both black holes with lower mass and probably even a neutron star.”