Both galaxies are smaller and lower in mass than the Milky Way, but both house much more massive supermassive black holes than we do. The gas bridge connecting these two galaxies infalls onto both members, triggering the formation of new stars. This multiwavelength view of the two largest, brightest galaxies in the M81 group shows stars, plasmas, and neutral hydrogen gas. Here’s the science of why we should seriously consider that our central, supermassive black hole might not be our galaxy’s original one.
What remains might be nothing more than an in-progress rebuilding project at the center of the Milky Way. While it’s possible that we’re simply a bit below average in the black hole department, there’s another potential explanation: perhaps the Milky Way once had a larger, truly supermassive black hole at its core, but it was ejected entirely a long time ago. When we look out at other large, massive galaxies - ones that are comparable to the Milky Way in size - we actually find that our supermassive black hole is on the rather small, low-mass side. From its perch in the galactic center, Sagittarius A* possesses the largest event horizon of any black hole we can observe from our current position in space.Īnd yet, despite how large, massive, and impressive this central black hole is, that’s only in comparison to the other black holes within our galaxy. It’s the largest black hole in the entire galaxy, and we’d have to travel millions of light-years away to find one that was more massive. Formed over billions of years from a combination of merging black holes and the infalling matter that grows them, there now sits a mammoth black hole that weighs in at four million solar masses.
At the heart of the Milky Way, a supermassive behemoth lurks.
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