Astronomers Discover The First Wandering Black Hole In Milky Way

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In what can be called yet another massive space discovery, a team of astronomers has detailed the discovery of the first-ever isolated stellar-mass black hole just wandering its way through the Milky Way galaxy. In 2019, scientists reported spotting a Jupiter-sized black hole passing through the galaxy that the Earth calls home. Last year, a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal claimed that wandering giant black holes may be lurking around the galactic halos.

Galaxies the size of the Milky Way were touted to have about 12 such rogue black holes casually strolling along the outskirts. But so far, such a black hole's existence hasn't been verified using proper measurements and observation data. And that probably has to do with the fact that directly detecting a black hole wandering against the black backdrop of space is no cakewalk. However, it appears that a wandering black hole might also be making its way through the Milky Way galaxy and has just been spotted for the first time.

Related: Hubble Finds A Black Hole That Creates Stars Instead Of Devouring Them

Name MOA-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462, the black hole in question has a mass roughly seven times that of the sun. Local black holes are easier to detect as they shine bright due to the heated matter falling into them or when they collide and emit gravitational waves. For isolated black holes, the technique used to spot them is called gravitational lensing. And when a small object exhibits the phenomenon, it is classified as microlensing. In a nutshell, a large object like a black hole passing between a star and the observer bends the space around and warps light, making the star appear magnified or displaced from its