Colloquium
oMEGACat and the intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri
Abstract
The massive globular cluster Omega Centauri is likely the stripped nucleus of an accreted dwarf galaxy and, therefore, provides a unique opportunity to study the central region of a galaxy, whose evolution halted billions of years ago.
In the last years we have created oMEGACat, the largest astrometric and spectroscopic dataset for any star cluster, with the goal to decipher both the formation history and the dynamics of Omega Centauri.
I will give an overview of this project and then focus on the exciting discovery of several fast-moving stars in the very center of the cluster. These stars provide the potentially best evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) we have to date.
These elusive IMBHs have masses between the stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes and may provide a missing link in our understanding of the formation of super-massive black holes
About the talk
ESO (Garching)
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About the speaker
Maximilian Häberle is a postdoctoral fellow at European Southern Observatory (ESO) headquarters in Garching near Munich. Previously, he obtained his PhD from Heidelberg University, working at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy under the supervision of Nadine Neumayer and Tom Herbst.
His research focuses on kinematic studies of globular clusters and the search for intermediate-mass black holes in their centers.
At the same time, he is also involved in the development of novel astronomical instrumentation, including the SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper and the first light instruments for the ELT.