File:Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4) (2023-016).png

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A Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular star cluster, Messier 4. The cluster is a dense collection of several hundred thousand stars.

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Description	English: A Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular star cluster, Messier 4. The cluster is a dense collection of several hundred thousand stars. Astronomers suspect that an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing as much as 800 times the mass of our Sun, is lurking, unseen, at its core.
Date	23 May 2023 (upload date)
Source	Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4)
Author	This file is lacking author information.
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This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use.
The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag.

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File:Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4) (2023-016).tiff

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Author	Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Image title	Gravitational traps in space, black holes, come in different sizes. Or more correctly, different masses, because they are all infinitely small. The first black hole ever discovered, in 1971, weighed in at 21 times our Sun’s mass. It was formed by the explosion and collapse of a star. A completely different class of black hole was identified in the mid-1990s. It weighed in at 6.5 billion times our Sun’s mass. Like all supermassive black holes, the monster dwells in the center of a giant galaxy.So, black holes can be super-big or super-small. The missing link is an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing roughly 1,000 times our Sun’s mass. A handful have been found in other galaxies. Perhaps they are on the road to growing into super-massive black holes.The cores of globular star clusters are hunting grounds for intermediate-mass black holes. They are smaller than galaxies and should have correspondingly smaller black holes. Over 150 of these snow-globe-shaped collections of hundreds of thousands of stars orbit our Milky Way galaxy, like artificial satellites whirling around Earth. Searches for intermediate-mass back holes in these clusters have been elusive. The suspected central black hole can’t be directly observed, of course. Astronomers gather circumstantial evidence by watching stars swarming around the black hole, like bees around a hive. Based on their speeds, the invisible central mass can be calculated using straightforward Newtonian laws of physics.Tracking the stars is meticulous work that’s cut out for the Hubble Space Telescope’s sharp resolution and longevity. Astronomers looking through over a decade of Hubble observations of the nearby globular star cluster Messier 4 calculated there is a very dense central object of about 800 solar masses. It is so compact, the observationsrule out alternative theories as to what’s happening in the heart of the cluster.
Short title	NASA’s Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole Close to Home
Credit/Provider	NASA, ESA, STScI, E. Vitral (STScI)
Headline	A Dark Central Object is Lurking at the Hub of a Glittering Stellar Island
Source	STScI
Usage terms	http://stsci.edu/copyright/
Date and time of data generation	00:00, 23 May 2023
PNG file comment	Gravitational traps in space, black holes, come in different sizes. Or more correctly, different masses, because they are all infinitely small. The first black hole ever discovered, in 1971, weighed in at 21 times our Sunâs mass. It was formed by the explosion and collapse of a star. A completely different class of black hole was identified in the mid-1990s. It weighed in at 6.5 billion times our Sunâs mass. Like all supermassive black holes, the monster dwells in the center of a giant galaxy. So, black holes can be super-big or super-small. The missing link is an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing roughly 1,000 times our Sunâs mass. A handful have been found in other galaxies. Perhaps they are on the road to growing into super-massive black holes. The cores of globular star clusters are hunting grounds for intermediate-mass black holes. They are smaller than galaxies and should have correspondingly smaller black holes. Over 150 of these snow-globe-shaped collections of hundreds of thousands of stars orbit our Milky Way galaxy, like artificial satellites whirling around Earth. Searches for intermediate-mass back holes in these clusters have been elusive. The suspected central black hole canât be directly observed, of course. Astronomers gather circumstantial evidence by watching stars swarming around the black hole, like bees around a hive. Based on their speeds, the invisible central mass can be calculated using straightforward Newtonian laws of physics. Tracking the stars is meticulous work thatâs cut out for the Hubble Space Telescopeâs sharp resolution and longevity. Astronomers looking through over a decade of Hubble observations of the nearby globular star cluster Messier 4 calculated there is a very dense central object of about 800 solar masses. It is so compact, the observations rule out alternative theories as to whatâs happening in the heart of the cluster.
Contact information	outreach@stsci.edu http://stsci.edu 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD, 21218 USA 410-338-4444
Keywords	M 4 Messier 4 NGC 6121
Horizontal resolution	28.34 dpc
Vertical resolution	28.34 dpc
File change date and time	06:36, 17 May 2023

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