A supermassive black hole with a mass of 17 billion suns was found in an isolated galaxy 200 million light years away.
Supermassive black holes have previously been found at the heart of large galaxies, but this is the first time one has been found in a relatively empty area, in a galaxy known as NGC 1600.
The black hole accounts for 2.1 percent of the entire mass of NGC 1600, where usually black holes only account for around 0.2 percent of their host galaxy's mass.
There was believed to be a correlation between the mass of a black hole and the mass of the galaxy's bulge of stars, but this new discovery may have proven that incorrect.
Professor Poshak Ghandi of the University of Southampton said, “What this is saying is that you don’t need these galaxy clusters to grow very massive black holes."
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Supermassive black holes have previously been found at the heart of large galaxies, but this is the first time one has been found in a relatively empty area, in a galaxy known as NGC 1600.
The black hole accounts for 2.1 percent of the entire mass of NGC 1600, where usually black holes only account for around 0.2 percent of their host galaxy's mass.
There was believed to be a correlation between the mass of a black hole and the mass of the galaxy's bulge of stars, but this new discovery may have proven that incorrect.
Professor Poshak Ghandi of the University of Southampton said, “What this is saying is that you don’t need these galaxy clusters to grow very massive black holes."
Continue reading…
Continue reading...