EVEN SOME DWARF GALAXIES CAN HARBOUR SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

Anil Seth of the University of Utah discovered a supermassive black hole at the centre of a dwarf galaxy What makes the black hole in the dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 such an interesting find?

We think most big galaxies have supermassive black holes, but M60-UCD1 is much smaller and less massive than any other galaxy with one. Supermassive black holes play an important role in how galaxies form, and this provides a new environment for us to find these objects.

Currently, we don’t understand how supermassive black holes form because their formation happened early in the universe.

How did such a big black hole form in such a small galaxy? M60-UCD1 got its name because it’s just 22,000 light years from the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 60. We think that M60UCD1 is in orbit around Messier 60 and was once a much larger galaxy. When it passed close to the centre of Messier 60, this once-bigger galaxy had its outer parts stripped away, leaving just the dense core of stars and the black hole behind.