Many of the galaxies in our space have supermassive black holes at their center. Giant, swirling vortexes of gravity that suck in everything, including light, and spit out extravagant jets that can travel for millions of light years. But now, scientists have found a supermassive black hole that has such a low mass that scientists are wondering where it even came from.
The black hole in question can be found in the middle of galaxy NGC 4178. The galaxy is located some 55-million light years from Earth. Data suggests that this black hole is one of the lightest supermassive black holes observed. The mass of the black hole is estimated to be only 360,000 times that of our sun - a small amount in the cosmic scheme of things.
The discovery was made using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Black holes do not emit any light (due to the fact that they suck in even light thanks to their massive gravity) and are essentially invisible on our visual wavelengths. Instead, scientists need to have keep an keen eye out for how the black hole affects its environment around it. X-Rays, radio waves, and even the gravitational bend a black hole exerts on light around it are the best ways to identify a galaxy.
The reason the find is so surprising is because the math just doesn't add up. Current models imply a correlation between the size of the galaxy and its center black hole. The black hole in NGC 4178 seems to argue with these assumptions, implying there is more to the black hole and galaxy relationship than we previously thought.
Read the full study here.
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