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Galactic Black Holes May Be More Massive Than Thought
from Science News
PASADENA, Calif. -- And now for something truly monstrous. Astronomers report that some of the biggest supermassive black holes in nearby galaxies are at least twice and possibly four times as heavy as previously estimated.
The findings come from new simulations by two independent teams of researchers, as well as new observations of stars whipping around a handful of supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies no more than a few hundred million light-years from Earth.
The results, some of which were reported June 7 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, may resolve a long-standing puzzle about the mismatch between the masses of giant black holes in distant versus nearby galaxies. The findings may also suggest that supermassive black holes, already known to grow in lockstep with a galaxy's central bulge of stars, may play an even bigger role in governing the growth and maximum size of galaxies than had been suspected.
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