Hubble Space Telescope finds black holes in Space

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a supermassive black hole that is believed to have broken away from its galaxy and is now roaming the universe, creating new stars in the process.

NASA scientists believe that the black hole is the result of two galaxies that merged about 50 million years ago, and then colliding with a third galaxy. They believe that when the two galaxies merged, one of the three galaxies' original black holes was ejected from the constellation and is now doing some sort of solo race through the universe. Meanwhile, new stars are forming behind the black hole 200,000 light years away.

"Rather than gobbling up stars ahead of it, like a cosmic Pac-Man, the speedy black hole is plowing into gas in front of it to trigger new star formation along a narrow corridor. The black hole is streaking too fast to take time for a snack. Nothing like it has ever been seen before, but it was captured accidentally by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope."

NASA writes about this:

The supermassive black hole has a travel speed that would allow it to travel between Earth and the Moon in 14 minutes, according to NASA. However, they caution that the black hole is very far from our galaxy and we don't have to worry about being eaten by it.

Here at NASA, we are excited to share the news that we have discovered a new supermassive black hole that is speeding along through the universe on its own. This black hole is incredibly large, and it is fascinating to think about just how close we might have gotten to it if we were situated a little bit closer to it.

hubblesite.org