GCIRS 13E is an infrared and radio object near the Galactic Center. It is believed to be a cluster of hot massive stars, possibly containing an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) at its center.

GCIRS 13E was first identified as GCIRS 13, which was later resolved into two components GCIRS13E and W.^[3] GCIRS 13E was initially modelled as a single object, possibly a binary system.^[4] It was even classified as a Wolf-Rayet star because of its strong emission line spectrum, and named WR 101f.^[5] It was then resolved into seven Wolf-Rayet and class O stars.^[6] The highest-resolution infrared imaging and spectroscopy can now identify 19 objects in GCIRS 13E, of which 15 are dense gaseous regions. The remaining four objects are stars: WN8 and WC9 Wolf-Rayet stars; an OB supergiant; and a K3 giant.^[2]

The motions of the members of GCIRS 13E appear to indicate a much higher mass than can be accounted for by the visible objects. It has been proposed that there may be an intermediate-mass black hole with a mass of about 1,300 M_☉ at its center. There are a number of problems with this theory.^[7] However, the true nature of the cluster remains unknown.^[2]

GCIRS 13E is a small cluster dominated by a few massive stars. It is thought that massive stars cannot form so close to a supermassive black hole and since such massive stars have a short lifespan it is thought that GCIRS 13E must have migrated inward toward the central black hole within the past 10 million years, probably from about 60 light-years further out than its current orbit. The stars are possibly the remains of a globular cluster where a middleweight black hole could develop through runaway star collisions.^[7] GCIRS 13E could also be a dark star cluster which forms in the inner Galaxy if the evaporation rate of stars from the cluster is faster due to a strong tidal field than the depletion of the black hole content though ejections.^[8]