Astronomers at the University of Maryland have discovered a supermassive black hole located 30,000 light-years from the center of a galaxy. The object revealed itself by tearing apart interstellar matter, reports infohub.kz.
This is the first time scientists have detected a dormant supermassive black hole far beyond a galactic core. Typically, such giants remain invisible because they do not consume matter or emit light. However, this object made its presence known when it pulled in and destroyed a passing star, producing a powerful flare.
The event was detected using the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in California. Due to the vast amount of data, scientists employed artificial intelligence trained to identify flares caused by stellar disruptions.
In mass, the object is comparable to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Researchers suggest that this "wandering" black hole may have ended up at the galaxy's edge due to a galactic collision or interactions within a system of three black holes. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.