List of black holes
Encyclopedia
This is an incomplete list of black holes (and stars considered probable candidates) organized by size (including black hole stars of undetermined mass); some items in this list are galaxies or star clusters that are believed to be organized around a black hole. Messier
and New General Catalogue
designations are given where possible.
) is on-going, although the artificial production of micro black holes with particle accelerators has caused some to voice concerns for safety, considered greatly discredited in scientific examination of the concerns, since higher energy impacts routinely occur on Earth in the form of cosmic ray
s.
Messier object
The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771. The original motivation of the catalogue was that Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets...
and New General Catalogue
New General Catalogue
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars is a well-known catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects...
designations are given where possible.
Supermassive black holes and candidates
- 1ES 2344+514
- 3C 66B
- 3C 75
- 3C 3713C 3713C 371 is a BL Lac object located in the constellation Draco. With a redshift of 0.051, this active galaxy is about 730 million light-years away....
- 4C +37.11 (this radio galaxy is believed to have binary supermassive black holes)
- AP Lib
- APM 08279+5255APM 08279+5255APM 08279+5255 is a quasar in the constellation Lynx, that is notable for being a particularly good example of a gravitational lens. When originally discovered, the combination of its high redshift and brightness made it the most luminous object known- the light left the quasar more than 12...
- Arp 220Arp 220Arp 220 is the result of a collision between two galaxies which are now in the process of merging. Located 250 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens, it is the 220th object in Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.-Features:...
- Centaurus ACentaurus ACentaurus A is a prominent galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. There is considerable debate in the literature regarding the galaxy's fundamental properties such as its Hubble type and distance...
- EXO 0706.1+5913
- Fornax A
- HE0450-2958HE0450-2958HE0450-2958 is an unusual quasar. It has been called the "naked quasar" and the "quasar without a home" because it appears to lack a host galaxy. It is estimated to lie approximately one billion parsecs away.-History:...
- Hypercompact stellar systemHypercompact stellar systemA hypercompact stellar system is a dense cluster of stars around a supermassive black hole that has been ejected from the centre of its host galaxy...
(is organized around a supermassive black hole). Hypothetical object. - IC 1459
- J1728.2+5013
- MCG-6-30-15
- Messier 31
- Messier 32Messier 32Messier 32 is a dwarf elliptical galaxy about 2.65 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. M32 is a satellite galaxy of the famous Andromeda Galaxy and was discovered by Le Gentil in 1749. M32 measures only 6.5 ± 0.2 kly in diameter at the widest point...
- Messier 60Messier 60Messier 60 is an elliptical galaxy approximately 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.-History:...
- Messier 77Messier 77Messier 77 is a barred spiral galaxy about 47 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Messier 77 is an active galaxy with an Active Galactic Nucleus , which is obscured from view by astronomical dust at visible wavelengths...
- Messier 81Messier 81Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa...
- Messier 84Messier 84Messier 84 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. M84 is situated in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies....
- Messier 87Messier 87Messier 87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who cataloged it as a nebulous feature. The second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, it is located about 16.4 million parsecs from Earth...
- Messier 105Messier 105Messier 105 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo. Messier 105 is known to have a supermassive black hole.-History:...
- Messier 106Messier 106Messier 106 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth...
- Mrk 180
- Mrk 421
- Mrk 501
- NGC 821
- NGC 1023
- NGC 1097NGC 1097NGC 1097 is a barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. As of 2006, three supernovae have been observed in NGC 1097....
- NGC 1566NGC 1566NGC 1566 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Dorado. It is the dominant member of the Dorado Group and also its brightest member. It is the second brightest Seyfert galaxy after NGC 1068. Its absolute luminosity is 3.7 L☉...
- NGC 2778
- NGC 2787NGC 2787NGC 2787 is a barred lenticular galaxy approximately 24 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. In 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope took a look at NGC 2787.-LINER emission:...
- NGC 3079NGC 3079NGC 3079 is a barred spiral galaxy about 50 million light-years away, and located in the constellation Ursa Major. A prominent feature of this galaxy is the "bubble" forming in the very center .-Center Bubble:...
- NGC 3115NGC 3115NGC 3115 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Sextans. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1787. At about 32 million light-years away from us it is several times bigger than our Milky Way...
- NGC 3245
- NGC 3377
- NGC 3384NGC 3384NGC 3384 is a Elliptical galaxy in the constellation Leo. The Galaxy was discovered by Herschel in 1784. The high age of the stars in the central region of NGC 3384 was confirmed after analysis of their color...
- NGC 3608
- NGC 3894
- NGC 3998
- NGC 4151NGC 4151NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral Seyfert galaxy located 43 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, discovered by Frederick William Herschel on March 17, 1787...
- NGC 4261NGC 4261NGC 4261 is an elliptical galaxy located behind the Virgo Cluster in the W-cloud.The active galactic nucleus contains a 400 million solar mass supermassive black hole with a 800 light-year-wide spiral-shaped disk of dust fueling it....
- NGC 4291
- NGC 4342
- NGC 4350
- NGC 4438
- NGC 4459
- NGC 4473
- NGC 4486B (a satellite galaxy of Messier 87Messier 87Messier 87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who cataloged it as a nebulous feature. The second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, it is located about 16.4 million parsecs from Earth...
) - NGC 4564
- NGC 4579
- NGC 4596
- NGC 4697NGC 4697NGC 4697 is an elliptical galaxy some 40 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is a member of the NGC 4697 Group, a group of galaxies also containing NGC 4731 and several generally much smaller galaxies This group is about 55 million light-years away; it is one of the...
- NGC 4742
- NGC 4791
- NGC 4945NGC 4945NGC 4945 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. It is thought to be quite similar to the Milky Way Galaxy, but X-ray observations show that NGC 4945 has an unusual, energetic, Seyfert 2 nucleus that might house a large black hole...
- NGC 5033NGC 5033NGC 5033 is an inclined spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. Distance estimates vary from between 38 to 60 million light years from the Milky Way Galaxy. The galaxy has a very bright nucleus and a relatively faint disk. Significant warping is visible in the southern half of...
- NGC 5845
- NGC 6251
- NGC 7052NGC 7052NGC 7052 is a elliptical galaxy in the constellation Vulpecula....
- NGC 7457
- OJ 287OJ 287OJ 287 is a BL Lac object located 3.5 billion light years away that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891...
(this BL Lac objectBL Lac objectA BL Lacertae object or BL Lac object is a type of active galaxy with an active galactic nucleus and is named after its prototype, BL Lacertae. In contrast to other types of active galactic nuclei, BL Lacs are characterized by rapid and large-amplitude flux variability and significant optical...
has the largest known supermassive black hole at its center) - PKS 0521-365PKS 0521-365PKS 2155-304 is one of the brightest active galaxies in the sky. The source is a strong emitter from radio to gamma frequencies. The object is at z = 0.116....
- PKS 0548-322
- PKS 2201+044
- Q0906+6930Q0906+6930Q0906+6930 is the most distant known blazar , discovered in July, 2004. The engine of the blazar is a supermassive black hole approximately 2 billion times the mass of the Sun . The event horizon volume is on the order of 1000 times that of the Solar System...
(a blazarBlazarA blazar is a very compact quasar associated with a presumed supermassive black hole at the center of an active, giant elliptical galaxy...
organized around a supermassive black hole) - Sagittarius A*, which is in the Milky WayMilky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
- Sombrero GalaxySombrero GalaxyThe Sombrero Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light years from earth. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a...
- Whirlpool GalaxyWhirlpool GalaxyThe Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy that is estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. in the constellation Canes Venatici...
Intermediate-mass black holes and candidates
- Andromeda GalaxyAndromeda GalaxyThe Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the...
(Messier 31, NGC 224) - Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82, NGC 3034)
- GCIRS 13EGCIRS 13EGCIRS 13E is potentially an intermediate mass black hole with a mass of about 1300 solar masses orbiting Sagittarius A* at a distance of about three light years. Its orbital velocity is 280 kilometers per second....
- M82 X-1M82 X-1M82 X-1 is an intermediate-mass black hole. It was detected in 2004 and confirmed in January 2006 by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.- External links :* http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/new_blackhole.html...
- Messier 15Messier 15Messier 15 or M15 is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles Messier's catalogue of comet-like objects in 1764...
(NGC 7078) - Messier 110Messier 110Messier 110 is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy. M110 contains some dust and hints of recent star formation, which is unusual for dwarf elliptical galaxies in general.-History:...
(NGC 205) - NGC 1313 X-1
- NGC 1313 X-2
- Sculptor GalaxySculptor GalaxyThe Sculptor Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor...
(NGC 253) - Triangulum GalaxyTriangulum GalaxyThe Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598, and is sometimes informally referred to as the Pinwheel Galaxy, a nickname it shares with Messier 101...
(Messier 33, NGC 598)
Stellar black holes and candidates
- 4U 1543-475/IL Lupi
- A0620-00/V616 MonA0620-00A0620-00 is a binary star and black hole candidate in the constellation of Monoceros.-Evidence from observation:A0620-00 is a binary system consisting of a black hole with a mass roughly estimated to be 11.0±1.9 times the mass of Sun and a K-type star similar to sun with mass of approximately 1.5...
- Cygnus X-1Cygnus X-1Cygnus X-1 is a well-known galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered in 1964 during a rocket flight and is one of the strongest X-ray sources seen from Earth, producing a peak X-ray flux density of 2.3 Wm−2Hz−1...
(this black hole is currently thought to be the closest to EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, at about 6,000 light years, and has the gravitational pull of at least 10 suns) - Cygnus X-3Cygnus x-3Cygnus X-3 is one of the stronger binary X-ray sources in the sky.Classified as a microquasar, it is believed to be a compact object in a binary system which is pulling in a stream of gas from an ordinary star companion....
- GRO J0422+32GRO J0422+32GRO J0422+32 is an X-ray nova and black hole candidate that was discovered by the BATSE instrument on the CGRO satellite on 5 August 1992.During outburst, it was observed to be stronger than the Crab Nebula gamma-ray source out to photon energies of about 500 keV.The mass of the black hole in GRO...
(this is the smallest black hole yet discovered) - GRO J1655-40GRO J1655-40|-! style="background-color: #FFFFC0;" colspan="2" | Astrometry|- style="vertical-align: top;"| Spectral type | F5IV|- style="vertical-align: top;"| Apparent magnitude | 17.0|- style="vertical-align: top;"| Distance | 5,500—11,000 ly...
/V1033 Sco - GRS 1124-683GRS 1124-683The gamma-ray and X-ray source GRS 1124-683, discovered by the Granat mission and Ginga, is a system containing a black hole candidate. The system also goes by the name X-ray Nova Muscae 1991 or GU Mus...
/GU Mus - GRS 1915+105GRS 1915+105GRS 1915+105 or V1487 Aquilae is an X-ray binary star system which features a regular star and a black hole. It was discovered on August 15, 1992 by the WATCH all-sky monitor aboard Granat. "GRS" stands for "GRANAT source", "1915" is the right ascension and "105" is declination in units of 0.1...
/V1487 Aql - GS 2000+25/QZ Vul
- GX 339-4GX 339-4GX 339-4 is a moderately strong variable galactic Low-Mass X-ray binary source and black hole-candidate, which flares from time to time.-External Links:...
/V821 Ara - M33 X-7M33 X-7M33 X-7 is a black hole binary system in the galaxy M33. The system is made up of a stellar mass black hole and a companion star. M33 X-7 is the largest known stellar black hole with an estimated mass of 15.7 times that of the Sun...
(most massive stellar-mass black hole known) - MACHO-96-BLG-5
- MACHO-96-NLG-5
- MACHO-98-BLG-6
- MACHO-99-BLG-22
- SN 1997DSN 1997DSN 1997D, discovered on January 1997 in galaxy NGC 1536 in Dorado constellation is a first clearly identified example of atypical Type II supernova with a very low luminosity and expansion velocity.-Progenitor:...
(in NGC 1536) - SS 433SS 433SS 433 is one of the most exotic star systems observed. It is an eclipsing X-ray binary system, with the primary most likely a black hole, or possibly a neutron star., pp. 23–24. The spectrum of the secondary companion star suggests that it is a late A-type star...
- V404 Cyg
- XTE J1118+480/KV UMa
- XTE J1550-564/V381 Nor
- XTE J1650-500XTE J1650-500XTE J1650-500 is a stellar-mass black hole candidate and 2000-2001 transient binary X-ray source located in the constellation Ara.In 2008, it was claimed that this black hole had a mass of 3.8±0.5 solar masses, which would have been the smallest found for any black hole...
- XTE J1819-254/V4641 SgrV4641 SgrV4641 Sagittarii is a variable X-ray binary star system in the constellation Sagittarius. It is the source of one of the fastest superluminal jets in our galaxy....
Micro black holes
Currently, the existence of micro black holes remains solely the subject of theoretical models; research in this area with particle accelerators (such as the Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
) is on-going, although the artificial production of micro black holes with particle accelerators has caused some to voice concerns for safety, considered greatly discredited in scientific examination of the concerns, since higher energy impacts routinely occur on Earth in the form of cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s.
External links
- NASA's general description of black holes.
- A list of black hole stars and candidates compiled by Dr. William Robert Johnston, Ph.D (Physics), a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas (Dallas).
See also
- Black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
- Supermassive black holeSupermassive black holeA supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole in a galaxy, in the order of hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses. Most, and possibly all galaxies, including the Milky Way, are believed to contain supermassive black holes at their centers.Supermassive black holes have...
- Intermediate-mass black holeIntermediate-mass black holeAn Intermediate-mass black hole is a black hole whose mass is significantly more than stellar black holes yet far less than supermassive black holes...
- Stellar black holeStellar black holeA stellar black hole is a black hole formed by the gravitational collapse of a massive star. They have masses ranging from about 3 to several tens of solar masses...
- Micro black holeMicro black holeMicro black holes are tiny black holes, also called quantum mechanical black holes or mini black holes, for which quantum mechanical effects play an important role....