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Astronomers
say a star system in our Milky Way Galaxy contains a massive black
hole.
It has 14 times
more mass than the Sun, making it the heaviest known stellar black
hole in the Galaxy.
The observation
is opening up big questions about how such massive stellar black
holes form.
Instruments
at the European Southern Observatory in Chile are trained on the
system known as GRS 1915+105 almost 40,000 light-years away.
Experts were
able to identify a low-mass star which feeds the black hole with
a steady flow of stellar material.
A detailed follow-up
study revealed how this star revolves around its companion and this
made it possible to estimate the mass of the black hole.
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