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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Is There A Hidden Black Hole In The Center Of Omega Centauri?

For more than ten years, astronomers have been puzzled by a fascinating question: Is there a hidden black hole in the center of Omega Centauri?

Omega Centauri, often written as ω Centauri or ω Cen, is the most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way. Globular clusters are huge, spherical groups of stars—some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. Omega Centauri is especially interesting because it contains millions of stars and shows evidence of a very complex history.

In recent years, scientists found strong clues that a medium-sized black hole, called an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), may be sitting at the heart of this cluster. This discovery could be extremely important, because these mid-sized black holes are considered the “missing link” between the small black holes formed from dying stars and the enormous black holes found at the centers of galaxies.

But there is still one major puzzle:
If the black hole exists, why is it so quiet?
Why does it not give off the radio and X-ray signals that astronomers expect?

A recent study led by Mahida and collaborators has taken the deepest radio look ever at the center of Omega Centauri. Their goal was to detect any radio waves that might come from gas falling into the black hole. After observing for more than 170 hours, they found no radio signal at all.

This silence is extremely important. In science, not finding something can be just as meaningful as finding something—especially when the search is this detailed. These new results help us understand what kind of black hole might be hiding in Omega Centauri, how it behaves, and what it tells us about the early stages of black hole growth.

What Are Intermediate-Mass Black Holes?

Black holes come in different sizes. The smallest ones, called stellar-mass black holes, are formed when massive stars collapse. These usually weigh between a few times the mass of the Sun and up to around 200 solar masses.

At the other extreme, supermassive black holes weigh millions or even billions of times more than the Sun. These giants sit at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.

But in between these two types is a missing category:
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which weigh between about 200 and 100,000 solar masses.

Scientists believe IMBHs are important because they might tell us how the very first supermassive black holes formed. For example:

  • IMBHs may grow from repeated mergers inside dense clusters of stars.

  • They may form directly from the collapse of very large clouds of gas.

  • They might be the remains of the very first stars in the universe, called Population III stars.

Even though scientists have predicted that IMBHs should exist, they have been very hard to detect. Only a few possible examples have ever been found, and most of these detections are uncertain.

This is why Omega Centauri is so interesting: if it really contains an IMBH, it would be one of the strongest and clearest examples ever discovered.

Why Omega Centauri Is Special

Omega Centauri is unlike any other globular cluster in the Milky Way. Here are some of its key features:

1. It is the most massive globular cluster

Omega Centauri contains about 3.5 million solar masses of material. This makes it far heavier than most other clusters.

2. It has many generations of stars

Most globular clusters contain only one generation of old stars. But Omega Centauri has several different types of stars with different ages and chemical compositions. This is unusual.

3. It might be the core of a former dwarf galaxy

Some scientists believe Omega Centauri is not a normal cluster at all. Instead, it may be the leftover center of a small galaxy that was absorbed by the Milky Way long ago. Its stars and structure support this idea.

4. It is close to us

Omega Centauri is only about 5,500 parsecs (roughly 18,000 light-years) away. That is close in astronomical terms, making it a perfect target for detailed studies.

Because of these features, scientists have long suspected that Omega Centauri might harbor a black hole. In fact, many previous studies tried to measure the motions of stars near its center. These studies suggested that something heavy—possibly a black hole—was influencing the movement of the stars.

Recent Breakthrough: Fast-Moving Stars Reveal an IMBH

A major breakthrough came in 2024, when a team of astronomers discovered fast-moving stars right at the core of Omega Centauri. These stars were moving so quickly that their speeds could only be explained by the presence of a massive object.

From these measurements, researchers estimated the black hole’s mass to be somewhere between:

39,000 and 47,000 times the mass of the Sun.

This is exactly the mass range expected for an intermediate-mass black hole.

This discovery provided the strongest evidence yet for the existence of an IMBH in the cluster. But it did not answer every question. It told astronomers that a massive object must be there—but not how the black hole behaves.

To learn more about its behavior, scientists needed to look for signs of accretion, the process by which black holes grow.

How Do You Find a Black Hole That You Cannot See?

Black holes cannot be seen directly because they do not emit light. However, astronomers can detect black holes through two main methods:

1. Dynamical studies (studying star motions)

If a black hole is present, nearby stars will orbit more quickly. By measuring how these stars move, astronomers can estimate the mass of the unseen object. This is how the recent IMBH estimate was made.

2. Accretion signatures (radio and X-ray glow)

If gas falls into a black hole:

  • The gas heats up and emits X-rays

  • Jets of particles can produce radio waves

Even a small amount of gas—especially in a star-rich environment like a globular cluster—can create detectable radiation.

Globular clusters like Omega Centauri constantly produce small amounts of gas from aging stars. So if a black hole is present, astronomers expect at least some radio or X-ray activity.

This is where the new radio study becomes extremely important.

The Deepest Radio Study of Omega Centauri Ever Made

Mahida and team used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to observe Omega Centauri for approximately 170 hours. This is an unusually long observation time for a single target.

Their goal was simple:

Search for any radio signal coming from the center of Omega Centauri that could be linked to a black hole.

They created the most sensitive radio image of the cluster ever made. The image reached a noise level of just 1.1 microJansky, meaning it could detect even very faint radio sources.

This was an extraordinary achievement. To give a sense of scale, this sensitivity is like trying to hear the splash of a pebble dropped into a lake—from several kilometers away—while standing in a noisy crowd.

But despite the incredible sensitivity:

They found no radio signal at the proposed location of the IMBH.

No matter which center position they examined, the result was the same.

What the Missing Radio Signal Tells Us

Even though the black hole does not appear in the radio image, this absence of detection is extremely informative.

With no radio signal detected, the researchers were able to calculate an upper limit on how bright the black hole could be.

They found:

Maximum possible radio luminosity:

6.55 × 10²⁶ erg/s

Using this value, along with the estimated mass of the black hole, they then calculated how efficiently the black hole must be accreting gas.

The result:

Accretion efficiency is extremely low — less than 4 × 10⁻⁶.

This means:

  • The black hole is barely feeding at all

  • It is not producing detectable radio jets

  • It is unusually quiet compared to other black holes of similar mass

In simple terms:

If the IMBH exists, it is practically starving.

Why Is the Black Hole So Quiet?

There are several possible explanations.

1. The black hole has almost no gas to feed on

This is likely.
Even though old stars release gas, globular clusters do not hold on to it very well. Gas can escape due to:

  • Stellar winds

  • Radiation

  • Motion through the galaxy

  • Explosions from past stars

If little or no gas reaches the center, the black hole remains silent.

2. The accretion process is extremely inefficient

Not all black holes shine brightly. In some cases, the gas spiraling into the black hole produces very little radiation. These flows are called radiatively inefficient accretion flows, and they are known to produce almost no radio or X-ray emission.

3. The black hole may not produce jets

Jets—narrow beams of fast particles—are a major source of radio waves. If the IMBH does not make jets, it will appear radio quiet.

4. The environment itself is unusually calm

Unlike the centers of galaxies, globular clusters do not have dense gas clouds or active star formation. This naturally leads to much lower levels of accretion.

Why These Results Are Important

This new study has several major implications.

1. It supports the idea that an IMBH is present

The radio silence does not contradict the dynamical evidence. In fact, it fits well with a black hole living in a low-gas, low-activity environment.

2. It helps refine models of black hole growth

Understanding how IMBHs behave helps scientists understand how the first supermassive black holes might have formed.

3. It sets new limits for future studies

These radio observations are the deepest ever taken of a globular cluster. They set a benchmark for upcoming telescopes.

4. It helps explain why IMBHs are so hard to find

If most IMBHs are this quiet, it makes sense that astronomers have not detected many of them yet.

The Future: What Will New Telescopes Reveal?

New radio telescopes like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) will be far more sensitive than today’s instruments.

The SKA, for example, will be so powerful that it could reach the sensitivity of Mahida’s observations in just 15 minutes instead of 170 hours.

This means:

  • IMBH searches will become much easier

  • Astronomers can scan many more globular clusters

  • Even fainter radio signals could be detected

These telescopes may finally allow us to see whether Omega Centauri’s IMBH produces any radio emission at all—or whether it truly is one of the quietest black holes in the universe.

Beyond the Black Hole: Mapping All Radio Sources in Omega Centauri

The ultra-deep radio image not only helps with the black hole search—it also reveals many other radio-emitting objects inside the cluster.

These may include:

  • Pulsars

  • White dwarf binary systems

  • Background galaxies

  • Exotic fast-moving stars

  • Stellar remnants

Future work will compare these radio sources with X-ray and optical images to build a complete map of compact objects in the cluster. This will help scientists understand how stars evolve inside dense environments.

Conclusion

The mystery of Omega Centauri’s central black hole has fascinated astronomers for more than a decade. Recent star-motion studies strongly suggest that an intermediate-mass black hole weighing about 40,000 solar masses lies at the cluster’s core.

But the deepest radio observations ever made of the cluster show no sign of radio emission from the black hole’s location.

Instead of being a disappointment, this radio silence is incredibly revealing. It tells us:

  • The black hole is real, but extremely quiet

  • It is barely accreting gas

  • It produces no detectable jets

  • Its accretion efficiency is among the lowest ever measured

This paints a picture of a dormant, starved giant—a black hole that exists not to grow, but simply to anchor the center of a massive and ancient stellar system.

As new telescopes come online in the next decade, we will learn even more about this fascinating object. Perhaps Omega Centauri’s quiet black hole will finally reveal the secrets of how the first supermassive black holes were born—offering a new window into the early history of the universe.

Reference: Angiraben D. Mahida, Arash Bahramian, James C.A. Miller Jones, Susmita Sett, Kristen Dage, Jay Strader, Timothy J. Galvin, Alessandro Paduano, "No evidence for accretion around the intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri", Arxiv, 2025. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09649


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