Science Highlight - Astronomers find wandering massive black holes in dwarf galaxies

Astrophysics

Astronomers find wandering massive black holes in dwarf galaxies

In nearly half of the cases, the black hole is in galaxy’s outskirts

Using the Very Large Array, astronomers discovered 13 dwarf galaxies with active massive black holes, roughly half of which had them located offset from the center.

Typically massive black holes reside in the center of massive galaxies, however, these black holes are difficult when studying the origin of black holes given their merger history and size. Amy Reines of Montana State University along with colleagues looked into smaller black holes found in smaller, nearer, galaxies. They gathered high-resolution images of 111 dwarf galaxies. 13 of which had black holes and half of which had their massive black hole in the outskirts of the galaxy. This aligns with previous computer simulations and also indicates that galaxy mergers most likely took place in the past. These new findings will assist in understanding the universe’s origins.

Reines, A. E. A New Sample of (Wandering) Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies from High-resolution Radio Observations. The Astrophysical Journal 888, 36 (January 3rd, 2020).https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4999?pageTitle=IOPscience