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 ...
They should have denser.
You missed the “heavenly bodies” lay-up. Go to the bench!
Isn't that roughly 1 MMU(*) in astronomical terms?
(*) MMU == "Michael Moore unit"
I met her daughter. Nice girl. Also met the daughter of a local mafia leader. I was very nice to her.
Ah, the good old days of summer.
Can we name this “black hole”? How about Michele, Whoopi, Omarosa, Joy Reid, Maxine Waters, or Sheila Jackson Lee?
Aholes, people. Boy you have dirty minds. /sarcy tonite!
Don't be so hard on yourself. You are just confusing Mass with Size. The first is a measure of density, the other a measure of distance.
Mass v. density, what has more mass, a ton of feathers or a ton of lead?
Mass is emphatically not a measure of density. It is a measure of mass. Density is (usually) a measure of mass per unit volume, but can also refer to obstinate or ignorant thinkers.
The Milky Way does have a radius of 50,000 light years. It’s 100,000 LYs across.
Apart from the error made by the reporter, black holes are amazing. They never show a sign of blowing up into a universe either.
Mass and weight are not the same thing.
Just caught that you said density, not weight...
A distinction most people don't get intuitively, but once they ponder "weightlessness" in combination with not having "lost weight," the distinction is grasped.
Thanks ETL. A ping to the APoD list.
Well of course it’s a ‘tiny galaxy’!
The Super Massive Black Hole ATE IT ALL!......................
“A supermassive black hole has been found at the center of a tiny galaxy, wowing researchers.
Obama’s last speaking engagement?
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.
Editing might not have caught it; it was so blatant.
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