A black hole moving at 3.5 million miles per hour: Astronomers detect a black hole fleeing from its galaxy
Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole moving through space at 3.5 million miles per hour, leaving behind a trail of newly formed stars.
This discovery provides the first evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their host galaxies.
More observations are needed to confirm the results and to understand how such a massive object could be ejected from the host galaxy.
A team of astronomers has discovered a supermassive black hole that may be the first evidence that these massive objects can be ejecting from their host galaxies.
When researchers were observing the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located 7.5 billion light-years from Earth, using the Hubble Space Telescope, they discovered a bright streak of light more than 200,000 light-years across. Follow-up observations revealed that the line is composed of compressed gas actively engaged in star formation and is tracking a black hole about 20 million times the mass of the Sun, which is accelerating away from its home galaxy at 3.5 million miles per hour.
The researchers believe that the line points to the center of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole would normally reside. Through detailed analysis of the feature, the team concluded that they see a supermassive black hole that has been ejected from the galaxy, leaving behind a trail of gas and newly formed stars.
The researchers ruled out the possibility that they were observing astrophysical jets — jets of material shooting out of black holes at high speeds that can be seen as superficially resembling streaks of light — because a potential supermassive black hole's tail gets stronger the farther it gets from its galactic origin point. Which is what they now see, as the astrophysical jets become weaker as they move away from the source of their emission.
The confirmation of a black hole's ejected tail is the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their host galaxies to roam interstellar space. The team suggests that the most likely scenario for a black hole's ejection is a slingshot caused by a three-body interaction during a galactic merger. Astronomers aren't sure how common these runaway holes are, but most theorists think there must be a lot of them.
More observations using other telescopes are needed to find direct evidence of a black hole at the tip of the fuzzy streak. If confirmed, this discovery will be an important step forward in understanding the behavior of supermassive black holes and their role in the formation and evolution of galaxies.
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