Missing supermassive black hole at centre of distant galaxy baffles scientists

The galaxy is one of 25 within the Abel 2261 cluster spotted by Hubble.
NASA

The disappearance of a supermassive black hole which would be expected to sit in the centre of a distant galaxy has left scientists baffled.

Researchers believe the bright cluster galaxy, A2261-BCG, is the first ever example of a so-called "recoiling" black hole.

A recoiling black hole is one that is ejected from the centre of the galaxy by a powerful force, and is now mysteriously floating through space.

The nature of these black holes has been described in a study which will be published by the American Astronomical Society journal, led by Dr Kayhan Gultekin at the University of Michigan.

But new observations his team captured using the Chanda X-ray observatory have confirmed that there are no X-ray emissions from the centre of the galaxy nor in any of the four off-centre stellar knots, which would indicate the black hole's location.

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Speaking to online technology magazine Motherboard, Dr Gultekin said: "I was very sceptical and thought we would see something at the very centre. But that turned out not to be the case. It turned out to not be in any of these locations"

He added that his believe there is a chance that there is a "very stealthy black hole" in the galaxy, one that is dim compared to other supermassive black holes and therefore incredibly difficult to detect.

However the possibility that the black hole is missing is even more “exciting” as it would have been ejected by the recoil caused when two supermassive black holes merged during a galactic collision.

Supermassive black holes have never been observed merging and finding evidence supporting this hypothetical scenario would be an enormous breakthrough for astronomy, revealing details about the nature of the universe that couldn't be observed in any other way.

"What excites me the most is learning about supermassive black holes through gravitational waves," Dr Gultekin told Motherboard.

"We need to know for certain that they are merging and this would be one way of showing that that's happening," he added.

His team hopes that future space telescope missions from NASA and the European Space Agency will be able to search the galaxy for more information.

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