- What is a BLACK Hole? A supermassive blackhole on the move
- The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around this black hole, which is 6.5 billion times more massive than our sun. This black hole is located in the center of the galaxy M87, only 55 million light-years from Earth
- Galaxy J0437+2456 – which contains the newly discovered wandering black hole – is located 4 times farther, at a distance of 230 million light-years from us.
- Everything in space is moving. But astronomers have wondered if it were possible for supermassive black holes – the light-devouring masses at the centers of galaxies – to move relative to their host galaxies. Until now, the answer was probably. Such movement would be tough for objects as massive as supermassive black holes, which can outweigh our sun by millions of times. Now a new study, published on March 12, 2021, points to the most convincing case yet of a supermassive black hole on the move. The black hole has a mass of three million suns. It appears to be moving at a velocity of 110,000 miles per hour (177,000 km/hr) inside its host galaxy, J0437+2456.
- What could have disturbed the supermassive black hole inside galaxy J0437+2456, enough to set it into motion? In other words, why is the central black hole of this distant galaxy – located 230 million light-years from us – moving within its galaxy?
- – the aftermath of two supermassive black holes merging. The result of such a merger can cause the newborn black hole to recoil, and we may be watching it in the act of recoiling or as it settles down again.
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