July Space Article-National Scene Magazine-"Can Black Holes Help Determine How Galaxies Are Formed?"

July Space Article-National Scene Magazine


July Space Article-National Scene Magazine


Can Black Holes Help Astronomers Determine How Galaxies Are Formed?

The American Astronomical Society Seems to Think So, With Discovery of M87’s Black Hole Being Bigger Than Previously Thought

Written by: Karen Benardello

The most massive black hole ever weighed has been discovered at the heart of the galaxy M87, which is 50 million light-years away from our galaxy the Milky Way, the American Astronomical Society announced at its June 8 meeting in Pasadena, CA. The black hole, now determined to weigh 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun, is two to three times bigger than previously thought.

This new discovery means that other black holes in other large galaxies could also be much heavier than current measurements suggest. Adjusting how other black holes are measured could help scientists better understand how galaxies form.

The finding “is important for how black holes relate to galaxies,” society member Jens Thomas of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics said. “If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy.”

This relationship could impact astronomers’ current theories of how galaxies grow and form.

The M87 galaxy is so important it’s believed to be one of the first galaxies to harbor a central black hole, which was discovered nearly three decades ago. Astronomers now also think that most large galaxies, including the Milky Way, have supermassive black holes at their centers.

Astronomers also believe that M87 is the best place to study black holes, as it has an active jet that shoots light out of the galaxy’s core. This light helps astronomers understand how black holes attract and consume matter.