It had been spotted in February 2022 in a first study.

A "rogue black hole" is said to be adrift in the Milky Way.

A new independent study has confirmed the presence of this strange celestial object in our galaxy.

The new report conducted by researchers at the University of Berkeley (California), however, brings a nuance, reports

Science Alert

relayed by

Slate

.

The study claims that it could just as easily be a neutron star as a black hole.

#Astronomers may have detected a 'dark' free-floating #black #hole



The evidence and pictures do not convenience me, lots of people just want to quickly get into the media.



Sourcehttps://t.co/kY7gLy7nMh pic.twitter.com/dvvOISRKpk

— CK's Technology News (@CKsTechNews) June 12, 2022


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Between 10 million and a billion black holes in the Milky Way

In any case, the discovery was made thanks to gravitational microlensing, a technology that measures the deformation of stars by the gravitational field of the nearest object.

With this technique, "we have opened a new window on these dark objects, which cannot be seen otherwise", summarizes Jessica Lu, co-lead author of the study.

The interest of the gravitational microlens therefore lies in its ability to observe these black holes, which are difficult to detect because they produce no light.

There would exist in our Milky Way between 10 million and a billion black holes.

Other studies should soon come to confirm the nature of the phenomenon, black holes and neutron stars having very different masses.

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