Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) detected and measured the properties of an IMBHs (Intermediate-Mass Black Holes)

Posted 18 Apr 2025

2 min read

Discovery was made by the scientists from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), autonomous institute under Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The 3.6m DOT (commissioned in 2016) is the largest telescope for studying celestial objects at optical wavelengths in India.
- Located in Nainital and is maintained and operated by ARIES.

About IMBH Detected

Location: About 4.3 million light-years away in a faint galaxy.
Finding: A gas cloud orbiting the black hole at a distance of around 2.25 billion kilometre with a velocity dispersion of 545 km per second was found.
Significance of the discovery: So far IMBH have remained evasive due to their faint nature and location in small galaxies.
- Unlike their larger counterparts, they generally do not generate bright emissions.

About: Regions in space where an enormous amount of mass is packed into a tiny volume creating a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape.
- They neither emit nor reflect light, making them invisible to telescopes.
- They are created when giant stars collapse and are surrounded by a boundary called an Event Horizon.
Detection: Based on their impact on surroundings through
- Accretion disks (ring of gas and dust surrounding black holes).
- Gravitational waves (ripples created when very massive objects accelerate through space), etc.
Significance of Studying Black Holes: Testing fundamental theories of Universe like the General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics, etc.