Posted on 08/14/2018 6:31:50 PM PDT by ETL
A supermassive black hole has been found at the center of a tiny galaxy, a rare find. What makes the discovery even more unique is that it has been located in an ultracompact dwarf galaxy, stunning researchers.
The findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, note that the galaxy Fornax UCD3 is part of a set called ultracompact dwarfs (UCDs), a very rare set of galaxies.
"We have discovered a supermassive black hole in the center of Fornax UCD3," said the study's lead author, Anton Afanasiev, in a statement. "The black hole mass is 3.5 million that of the Sun, similar to the central black hole in our own Milky Way."
UCDs are especially rare, as they are larger, brighter and more massive than other galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
What makes the find of the supermassive black hole at the center of the UCD so notable is that UCDs tend to be very small, with radiuses not exceeding 300 light years and an overall mass of several tens of millions of solar masses.
"...UCD3 hosts metal rich stars enhanced in α-elements that support the tidal stripping of a massive progenitor as its likely formation scenario ..."
By comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, or a radius of 50,000 light years.
The findings were made with data collected from SINFONI, an "infrared integral field spectrograph installed at one of the 8-m VLT telescopes in Chile operated by the European Southern Observatory," according to the statement.
The mass of the supermassive black hole is particularly eye opening as well, approximately 3.5 million times our Sun at its center. This is approximately the same size of the supermassive black hole found in the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Either I can’t read, or they need an editor. In your excerpt the article contradicts itself at least twice.
“What makes the discovery even more unique is that it has been located in an ultracompact dwarf galaxy, stunning researchers.”
That’s cuz it prolly done ate up most of the stars already!
"The black hole mass is 3.5 million that of the Sun, similar to the central black hole in our own Milky Way."
UCDs are especially rare, as they are larger, brighter and more massive than other galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
What makes the find of the supermassive black hole at the center of the UCD so notable is that UCDs tend to be very small, with radiuses not exceeding 300 light years and an overall mass of several tens of millions of solar masses.
By comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, or a radius of 50,000 light years.
How can someone be so impossibly F'in stupid?
Is it big enough to swallow the accumulated evidence against HRClinton?
If you're referring to "tiny galaxy" and "ultracompact dwarf galaxy", they are not synonymous.
"A supermassive black hole has been found at the center of a tiny galaxy, a rare find. What makes the discovery even more unique is that it has been located in an ultracompact dwarf galaxy, stunning researchers."
LOL. These astronomers are easily amused. They'd stroke out if they saw a real star, Blaze Starr, that is:
Lol! Yeah, I see what you guys are referring to. Subject was interesting enough. Posted without reading carefully. I assumed they wouldnt screw it up like that.
How can it be larger and smaller at the same time?
They are like new cars...smaller on the outside,
larger on the inside, with heated seats!
Yes, they really botched it, didn’t they? And how did the editor miss it. Perhaps he/she has absolutely no interest in the subject and so ran through it very quickly.
“UCDs are especially rare, as they are larger, brighter and more massive than other galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
What makes the find of the supermassive black hole at the center of the UCD so notable is that UCDs tend to be very small, with radiuses not exceeding 300 light years”
A regular Tardis galaxy.
HAHAHAHAHA that’s was my first thought as well!!
“contradicts”
Large vs small.
The small part is the radius. The large is the mass and volume. Why? because it’s compact.
E.g. a 5x5 square has an area of 25 sq ft and a perimeter of 20.
Take the same perimeter but squash it to a 9x1 rectangle and you’re down to 9 sq ft.
The square has a larger area because it’s more “compact”.
I’m good with that. ETL nailed it.
You cannot simultaneously be large and small.
A massive Democrat convention in space! Was Jimmy Carter in attendance as well?
The hole ate the rest of the stars, and is working on what remains.
It would make for a heck of a quasar.
And the Milky Way has a radius of 50,000 light years.
I caught that too and re-read those paragraphs several times to try to understand until I to realized this must have been written and edited by millennials. Glad I wasn’t alone.
Just a reminder that events on a galactic scale are unimaginably large.
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