A "runaway" black hole has been found by astronomers, which may be the
first empirical proof that supermassive black holes can be expelled from
their mother galaxies.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org and has
been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org and has
been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
Follow-up studies revealed that the streak is believed to be composed of
compressed gas that is actively creating stars and is more than 200,000
light-years long, or approximately twice the breadth of the Milky Way. The
black hole, which is believed to weigh 20 million times as much as the sun,
is trailed by gas as it travels 4,500 times faster than sound at a pace of
3.5 million miles per hour (5.6 million kilometers per hour).
The streak, in the opinion of the experts, directly indicates to the
location of a supermassive black hole in the core of a galaxy.
Professor of physics and astronomy at Yale University
Pieter van Dokkum, the study's main author, told Live Science that his team had discovered a
thin line in a Hubble picture that pointed to a galaxy's core. "We
discovered a link between the line and the galaxy using the Keck observatory
in Hawaii. We deduced from a thorough study of the feature that we are
viewing a very large black hole that has been expelled from the galaxy and
has left behind a path of gas and freshly created stars."
confirming the presence of a black hole's expelled tail
The majority of big galaxies—if not all of them—have supermassive black
holes at their cores. Striking arcs of light resembling the one the
researchers saw can be seen as active supermassive black holes frequently
shoot jets of material out at high velocities. They are referred to as
astrophysial rockets.
Van Dokkum and the crew examined this sequence to establish that it wasn't
what they had seen and found it lacked all the characteristics of an
astrophysical jet. The researchers found that the possible supermassive
black hole tail actually grows stronger as it moves away from what appears
to be its galaxy point of origin, in contrast to how astrophysical jets
weaken as they move away from their source of emission. In contrast to
astrophysical jets that emerge from black holes, this path appears to have
stayed linear.
The team came to the conclusion that a supermassive black hole tearing
through the gas surrounding its galaxy and compressing that gas just enough
to spark star formation in its aftermath is the theory that best matches the
pattern.
If verified, it would be the first time we have conclusive proof that giant
black holes can leave galaxies, according to van Dokkum.
A moving black void
Once the existence of a runaway supermassive black hole has been
established, scientists must then determine how such a massive object can be
expelled from its home galaxy.
The three-body interaction that results in a slingshot is the most probable
possibility, according to van Dokkum, to explain everything that has been
observed. When three similar-mass entities gravitationally engage, the
interaction typically results in the creation of a binary and the ejection
of the third body rather than a stable arrangement.
This could imply that the runaway black hole was once a member of an
uncommon supermassive black hole pair, and that during a galactic merging, a
third supermassive black hole was added to this alliance, expelling one of
its members.
The frequency of these huge runaways is unknown to astronomers.
Van Dokkum stated that although ejected supermassive black holes had been
anticipated for 50 years, none had been clearly observed. Most thinkers
believe there ought to be a lot of them.
Van Dokkum added that additional measurements using different instruments
are required to discover concrete proof of a black hole at the enigmatic
streak's tip.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
A supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its parent
galaxy and is currently speeding through space while leaving a path of stars
in its aftermath has been discovered by astronomers.
The discovery, according to the team's research, provides the first
observational proof that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their
home galaxies and wander interstellar space. The research was published on
the pre-print server arXiv.org(opens in new tab) and has been accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The dwarf galaxy RCP 28 is situated about 7.5 billion light-years from
Earth, and the researchers were using the Hubble Space Telescope to study it
when they noticed the runaway black hole as a brilliant streak of
light.
