New Black Hole HLX-1 Has 500 Solar Masses And 260 Million Times Our Sun's Brightness

[anon]

Astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory have discovered a black hole they labeled HLX-1 (Hyper-Luminous X-ray source 1), which lies towards the outskirts of the galaxy ESO 243-49, approximately 290 million light-years from Earth and weighs more than 500 solar masses, making it a 'missing link' between lighter stellar-mass and heavier supermassive black holes. This discovery is the best detection to date of a new class that has long been searched for: intermediate mass black holes.

http://www.scientificblogging.com/ne...uns_brightness

[slikrapid]

This is why detections such as this by XMM-Newton are essential. It will help to understand just how supermassive black holes, such as that at the centre of our Galaxy, form.

i'm not convinced with such reasoning - there are all kinds of black holes in the universe (considering their size), so its nothing new really - now, if they found 2 black holes merging together that would be another story

its essentially like saying: we know of small & big planets, but this is the first time we found a medium sized one - so whats the big deal? its only logical to conclude there should be some with sizes in between these extremes