'Tadpole' Molecular Cloud Near Milky Way's Center Seems To Be Orbiting a Black Hole Hidden in the Galaxy

A strange cloud of gas, dubbed the Tadpole molecular cloud, appears to revolve around a region devoid of any luminous objects, Phys.org reported. Astronomers believe that its shape could come from somewhere, which is most likely a black hole that is 100,000 times the size of the sun.

Further observations will aid in determining what causes the Tadpole's form and movements, but they strongly believe that the comma-shaped molecular cloud in the heart of the Milky Way is orbiting one of astronomy's most coveted objects.

Finding the Cloud of Gas Named Tadpole

Throughout the Universe, black holes are found in two separate mass regimes. According to Science Alert, there are stellar-mass black holes, which may be up to 100 times the mass of the Sun and form when the core of a large star collapses towards the conclusion of its life or mergers between such black holes.

Another type is supermassive black holes, which are seen in galaxies' cores, with masses millions to billions of times that of the Sun. But there are also in-between black holes with in-between masses.

Astronomers believe that answers to questions about these celestial objects might be discovered among black holes with in-between masses. Nevertheless, only a handful of these middleweight objects have been recognized, and most of them just tentatively.

Also, one issue of lone black holes is that they do not emit light on their own. They can only be discovered by the influence of their massive gravity on their surroundings, which causes matter to whirl in white-hot wrath, or by pushing on the fabric of space-time in different ways.

Indeed, the galactic core is rather crowded. It's dense with molecular clouds, which give rise to stars. The Central Molecular Zone has a molecular gas density of several orders of magnitude greater than the disk of the Milky Way. The area is so thick that it can be difficult to see what's going on within, but a strong radio telescope can disclose what's going on.

So, a team of Japanese astronomers led by Keio University's Miyuki Kaneko used data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, which is operated by the East Asian Observatory, and the Nobeyama 45-m Radio Telescope of NAOJ to identify the strange cloud of gas 27,000 light-years away that they named Tadpole.

What's Going on With Tadpole Molecular Cloud

The molecular gas cloud's curved "Tadpole" form strongly implies that it is being stretched as it revolves around a giant compact object, CNet reported. But what baffles scientists is that there are no bright objects large enough to gravitationally keep the Tadpole at the center of its orbit. That is why their best guess is that a black hole is the greatest option for this large compact invisible entity.

Since black holes do not emit light, they can only be detected when they collide with other things. As a result, astronomers do not know how many black holes, and what masses, may exist in the Milky Way.

For their further study, they plan to use the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope to search for faint signals of a black hole or any object that could be at the gravitational center of Tadpole's orbit. They published their findings in the study, titled "Discovery of the Tadpole Molecular Cloud near the Galactic Nucleus," in The Astrophysical Journal.

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