BEIJING, Feb. 22 -- Chinese astronomers have identified a runaway star that was ejected from the M15 globular cluster, providing strong evidence for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), a long-missing link in our understanding of black hole evolution.

The discovery was led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) in collaboration with multiple institutions, and was published as a cover story in the National Science Review journal.

Black holes with masses between those of stellar-mass black holes, which are formed from the collapse of massive stars, and those of supermassive black holes, which reside at the centers of large galaxies, are known as IMBHs, said Huang ...