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Updated March 15th, 2021 at 20:27 IST

'Restless' supermassive blackhole found mysteriously 'moving' in distant galaxy

Mobile supermassive black hole moved with a speed of 177,000 kmh (110,000 mph), although the cause of the motion is not yet known by the astronomers.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
supermassive blackhole
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Astronomers on Sunday detected a moving supermassive black hole in a far away J0437+2456 spiral galaxy. With a mass about 3 million times larger than that of the sun, the supermassive black hole was observed by the Arecibo and Gemini observatories, wandering in space. Found situated in the Sb type galaxy approximately 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Taurus, the mobile supermassive black hole moved with a speed of 177,000 kmh (110,000 mph), although the cause of the motion is not yet known. 

“We don’t expect the majority of supermassive black holes to be moving; they’re usually content to just sit around,”  Dr. Dominic Pesce, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in the research published by Cornell University. He added that the ‘peculiar motion’ is mysterious as it would be a challenge to propel a celestial object with mass as humongous as that of a supermassive black hole. “They’re just so heavy that it’s tough to get them going.” Pesce said.

Pesco's team initially detected the movement of the J0437+2456’s supermassive black hole in 2018. It stunned the scientists to discover the motion of a solitary black hole that wasn’t typically merging, and prompted them to observe the velocities of the galaxies they resided in for upto 5 years to determine the cause. 

“Consider how much more difficult it is to kick a bowling ball into motion than it is to kick a soccer ball, realizing that in this case, the 'bowling ball' is several million times the mass of our Sun. That's going to require a pretty mighty kick,” Pesce explained. He added, that when astronomers detected the strange and the very rare phenomenon, “We asked, are the velocities of the black holes the same as the velocities of the galaxies they reside in?” He continued, “We expect them to have the same velocity. If they don't, that implies the black hole has been disturbed." 

[Credit: Twitter/@flymingo3]

[Galaxy J0437+2456, which is thought to be home to a moving supermassive black hole. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)]

Deployed VLBI technology

Astronomers discovered the wandering Supermassive blackhole after a survey of at least 10 distant galaxies and the core of the Black holes that formed the basis of their existence. Scientists used a complex network of radio antennas, that deployed advanced technology dubbed very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) which helped them detect that at least 10 supermassive black holes in the space were stationary but one rare supermassive black hole was in motion 230 million light-years away. 

(Image Credit: Twitter/@NASAUniverse)

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Published March 15th, 2021 at 20:27 IST

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