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Supermassive Black Holes May Frequently Roam Galaxy Centers

A team of astronomy researchers at Florida Institute of Technology and Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States and University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, find that the supermassive black hole at the center of the most massive local galaxy, M87, is not where it was expected. Their research, conducted using the Hubble Space Telescope, concludes that the supermassive black hole in M87 is displaced from the galaxy center.

The most likely cause for this supermassive black hole to be off center is a previous merger between two older, less massive, supermassive black holes. The iconic M87 jet may have pushed the SMBH away from the galaxy center, say researchers.

At right is a large-scale image of galaxy M87 taken in 1998 with Hubble’s Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2. The two images at left show an image taken in 2006 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

The position of the supermassive black hole is indicated by the black dot in the lower left panel, and a knot in the jet (HST-1), which was flaring in 2006. The red dot indicates the center of the galaxy’s light distribution, which is offset from the position of the black hole by about 22 light-years.

Source: Read the full story at Florida Institute of Technology (via HubbleSite.org)