Microlensing by compact object (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Microlensing by compact object

Caption

Hubble Space Telescope image of a distant star that was brightened and distorted by an invisible but very compact and heavy object between it and Earth. The compact object — estimated by UC Berkeley astronomers to be between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of our sun — could be a free-floating black hole, one of perhaps 200 million in the Milky Way galaxy.

Credit

Image courtesy of STScI/NASA/ESA

Usage Restrictions

No restrictions.

License

Public Domain

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