A middleweight black hole has been spotted for the first time in our galaxy

The find could help link smaller black holes and the behemoths at galaxies’ centers

Thousands of multicolored points of light fill an image of a star cluster

If a rare midsize black hole truly does lurk in the heart of the Omega Centauri star cluster, it would be the first black hole of its size found in the Milky Way. In this Hubble Space Telescope image, the supposed black hole’s location is marked by the white box.

Hubble/ESA, NASA, M. Häberle/MPIA

For the first time, astronomers have spotted a middleweight black hole in the nearby universe.