Black hole found in enigmatic Omega Centauri

Globular clusters consist of up to one million old stars tightly bound by gravity and are found in the outskirts of many galaxies including our own. Omega Centauri has several characteristics that distinguish it from other globular clusters: it rotates faster, its shape is highly flattened and it consists of several generations of stars -- Moreover, Omega Centauri is about 10 times as massive as other big globular clusters Omega Centauri has been known as unusual for a long time. A new result obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the explanation behind Omega Centauri's peculiarities may be a black hole hidden in its centre.Finding a black hole at the heart of Omega Centauri could have profound implications for our understanding of its past interaction with the Milky Way One implication of the discovery is that it is very likely that Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars, as some scientists have suspected for a few years. According to scientists, these intermediate-mass black holes could turn out to be "baby" supermassive black holes. "We may be on the verge of uncovering one possible mechanism for the formation of supermassive black holes. Intermediate-mass black holes may be rare and exist only in former dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer stars, but they could also be more common than expected, existing at the centres of globular clusters as well. For details about this discovery and others, visit us at http://figbranch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=146&Itemid=32 Clips By NASA/ESA, Music By FreePlayMusic.com and Narration by Jim Newton