“Science is rarely about discovering something new in a single moment. Weighing in at about 100 to 1 million Suns, intermediate-mass black holes would be the link between the two. Most black holes that we know of are either the smaller ‘stellar-mass’ remnants of giant stars (up to 100 times the mass of the Sun) or the supermassive central anchors of large galaxies (billions of times the mass of the Sun). “So one of the possible theories is that rather than being lots of separate small dark objects, this dark mass could be one medium-sized black hole.”Īstronomers have been pondering these ‘intermediate-mass black holes’ for over two decades, but conclusive proof that they exist remains elusive. “Using the latest Gaia and Hubble data, it was not possible to distinguish between a dark population of stellar remnants and a single larger point-like source,” says Eduardo Vitral from the Space Telescope Science Institute, who led this research. But the mass at the centre of Messier 4 looks different – despite being especially large, it seems to be squeezed into a surprisingly small volume of space.

It is normal for globular clusters to have dark centres made up of many dead stars. If you’re not sure how to stream the games, check out our guide to catch all the TNF action on Prime Video this season.When ESA’s Gaia spacecraft scanned the Scorpius constellation and its ancient globular star cluster Messier 4, it captured something strange: a huge dark blob at the cluster’s centre, 800 times more massive than our Sun. See the full TNF schedule for more games. Thursday Night Football kicks off an exciting new season of live coverage on Thursday, September 14, when the NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles host the NFC North Champion Minnesota Vikings in Lincoln Financial Field’s home opener. For Michaels, his work in the TNF broadcast booth last season earned him the 33rd Sports Emmy nomination of his legendary career, during which he has collected eight trophies, including NATAS’ Lifetime Achievement Award.

Beyond Outstanding Interactive Experience, TNF was also nominated for Outstanding Live Series, Outstanding Graphic Design, Specialty, Outstanding Digital Innovation, and Outstanding Personality/Play-by-Play for Al Michaels. According to NATAS’ classification of nominations by program, the inaugural season of Thursday Night Football earned more Sports Emmy nominations than any other full-season NFL package.

Download blek