We report the discovery of molecular gas streams orbiting around an invisible massive object in the central region of our Galaxy, based on the high-resolution molecular line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The morphology and kinematics of these streams can be reproduced well through two Keplerian orbits around a single point mass of (3.2±0.6)×104M⊙. We also found ionized gas toward the inner part of the orbiting gas, indicating dissociative shock and/or photoionization. Our results provide new circumstantial evidences for a wandering intermediate-mass black hole in the Galactic center, suggesting also that high-velocity compact clouds can be probes of quiescent black holes abound in our Galaxy.
@article{arxiv.1812.10733,
title = {Indication of Another Intermediate-mass Black Hole in the Galactic Center},
author = {Shunya Takekawa and Tomoharu Oka and Yuhei Iwata and Shiho Tsujimoto and Mariko Nomura},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.10733},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal Letters