An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A → black hole with a mass in the range 10²-10⁴ solar masses. IMBHs may form as the result of multiple → mergers of smaller objects in the centers of dense stellar clusters in the present universe, assuming → mass loss from → stellar winds is not significant. They may also arise from the evolution of → very massive stars early in the history of the Universe, forming black hole "seeds" in the centers of massive halos (the precursors of the galaxies we see today) early in the history of the Universe, to redshifts z > 10. Currently the best observational evidence for IMBHs comes from models of ultraluminous X-ray sources (See, e.g., J. M. Centrella et al. 2010, astro-ph/1010.5260).

→ intermediate; → mass; → black; → hole.