Washington, Oct 7:

NASAs Swift satellite has found evidence of the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.

Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the centre of our galaxy towards the constellation Sagittarius, NASA said.

While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxys inner region.

The satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the centre of Milky Way and the outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of the black hole.

Bright X-ray novae are so rare that theyre essentially once-a-mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen, said Neil Gehrels, the missions principal investigator, at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

This is really something weve been waiting for, Gehrels said.

An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months.

The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole.

Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light.

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NASA discovers new black hole in Milky Way