by Astronomers have discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 measures more than 200,000 light-years long – about twice as wide as the Milky Way – and is thought to be made of compressed gas that is actively forming stars. The gas follows a black hole estimated to measure 20 million times the mass of the Sun and is hurtling 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 line points straight to the center of a galaxy, where a supermassive black hole would normally sit.
“We found a thin line in a Hubble image that points to the center of a galaxy,” lead study author Pieter van Dokkum (opens in a new tab), a professor of physics and astronomy at Yale University, told LiveScience. “Using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, we found that the line and the galaxy are connected. From a detailed analysis of the feature, we concluded that we see a very massive black hole that was ejected from the galaxy, leaving behind a trail of gas and newly formed stars in the wake.”
Confirming the tail of an ejected black hole
Most, if not all, large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers. Active supermassive black holes often emit jets of material at high speeds, which can be seen as streaks of light superficially similar to what the researchers saw. These are called astrophysical jets.
To determine that this was not what they observed, van Dokkum and the team examined this streak and found that it had none of the telltale signs of an astrophysical jet. While astrophysical jets grow weaker as they move away from the emission source, the potential supermassive black hole tail actually grows stronger as it moves away from what appears to be its galactic point of origin, according to the researchers. Also, astrophysical jets launched by black holes fan out from the source, while this path appears to have remained linear.
The team concluded that the explanation that best fits the streak is a supermassive black hole bursting through the gas surrounding the galaxy while compressing that gas enough to trigger star formation in its wake.
“If confirmed, it will be the first time we have clear evidence that supermassive black holes can escape from galaxies,” van Dokkum said.
Black holes on the move
Once the running supermassive black hole is confirmed, the next question astronomers must answer is how such a monstrous 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 bodies of similar mass gravitationally interact, the interaction does not lead to a stable configuration, but usually to the formation of a binary and the ejection of the third body.”
This could mean that the runaway black hole was once part of a rare supermassive black hole, and during a galactic merger a third supermassive black hole was introduced to this partnership, ejecting one of its residents.
Astronomers aren’t sure how common these massive escapes are.
“Ejected supermassive black holes had been predicted for 50 years, but none have been unequivocally seen,” said van Dokkum: “Most theorists believe there should be many out there.”
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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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 discovered a runaway supermassive black hole, apparently ejected from its home galaxy and hurtling through space with a chain of stars in its wake.
According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org (opens in a new tab) and has been 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 escape 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.
