by Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Follow-up observations showed that the streak is more than 200,000 light-years long — about twice the width of the Milky Way — and is thought to be made of compressed gas that is actively forming stars. The gas trails a black hole estimated to be 20 million times the mass of the sun and speeding away from its home galaxy at 3.5 million mph (5.6 million km/h), or about 4,500 times the speed of sound.
According to the researchers, the streak points straight to the center of a galaxy, where a supermassive black hole would normally sit.
“​​​​​​​We found a thin line in the Hubble image centered on the center of the galaxy,” lead study author Pieter van Dokkum (opens in a new tab), professor of physics and astronomy at Yale University, told Live Science. “Using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, we discovered that the line and the galaxy are connected. From a detailed analysis of the feature, we understand that we are seeing a supermassive black hole ejected from the galaxy, which left a trail of gas. and newly formed stars in their wake.”
Confirming the tail of an emitted black hole
Most, if not all, massive galaxies host supermassive black holes at their centers. Active supermassive black holes often send out jets of matter at high speeds, which can be seen as streaks of light superficially similar to the one the researchers saw. These are called astrophysical jets.
To determine that this was not what they had observed, van Dokkum and team investigated this streak and found that there were no telltale signs of an astrophysical jet. While astrophysical jets become weaker as they move away from their emission source, the tail of the potentially supermassive black hole becomes stronger as it moves away from the galactic point of origin, the researchers say. Also, astrophysical jets sent by black hole fans away from their source, but this track seems to have remained linear.
The team concluded that the best explanation for the streak is a supermassive black hole bursting through the gas surrounding its galaxy, compressing that gas enough to trigger star formation in its wake.
“If confirmed, this would be the first time we have clear evidence that supermassive black holes can escape from galaxies,” said van Dokkum.
Black holes on the move
Once the running supermassive black hole is confirmed, the next question astronomers must answer is how such a massive object is ejected from its host galaxy.
“The most likely scenario that explains everything we’ve seen is a slingshot, caused by a three-body interaction,” said van Dokkum. “When three similar masses interact gravitationally, the interaction does not result in a stable configuration but usually the formation of a binary and the ejection of a third body.”
This could mean that the runaway black hole was part of a rare supermassive black hole binary, and during a galactic merger, a third supermassive black hole was brought into this partnership, ejecting one of its occupants. .
Astronomers aren’t sure how common these giant runways are.
“Supermassive black holes have been predicted for 50 years but none have been clearly seen,” said van Dokkum “Most theorists think there should be many.”
Further observations with other telescopes are needed to find direct evidence of a black hole at the tip of the mysterious streak, van Dokkum added.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole running out of its home galaxy as it races through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, published on the preprint server onXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery provides the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected from their home galaxies to roam interstellar space.
The researchers discovered the runaway black hole as a bright streak of light while using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, located about 7.5 billion light-years from Earth.
