• Indian astrophysicists, using the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) and the 1.3m Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT), have detected and characterized an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in the faint galaxy NGC 4395, approximately 4.3 million light-years from Earth.
• Employing a technique called spectrophotometric reverberation mapping, the team measured the black hole's mass to be about 22,000 times that of the Sun, orbiting gas clouds at a distance of 125 light-minutes with a velocity dispersion of 545 km/s; this makes it one of the most precisely measured IMBHs to date.
• This discovery, published in the Astrophysical Journal, significantly advances our understanding of IMBH growth and interaction with their surroundings, offering valuable insights into the evolution of supermassive black holes, as IMBHs are considered the seeds from which they grow; the hunt for more IMBHs continues, requiring larger telescopes and advanced instruments.