James Webb telescope confirms a supermassive black hole running away from its host galaxy at 2 million mph, researchers say
Live Science••general
Key Points:
- Astronomers, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), may have confirmed the first runaway supermassive black hole, moving at 2.2 million miles per hour away from its host galaxy, as detailed in a study led by Yale's Pieter van Dokkum.
- The black hole, with a mass equivalent to 20 million suns, was initially identified by a faint stellar wake 200,000 light-years long in Hubble images, and JWST's mid-infrared imaging revealed a clear bow shock—a shockwave created by the black hole's rapid escape.
- This discovery supports theories that runaway supermassive black holes can be ejected from galaxies through gravitational interactions involving at least two or three closely interacting black holes
