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An international team of scientists led by Carlos Melo-Carneiro has discovered one of the most massive black holes in the Universe. The ultramassive black hole at the center of the galaxy LRG 3−757 has a mass equivalent to 36 billion suns. It is a gravitational lens in the famous Cosmic Horseshoe system, located 5,5 billion light-years from Earth., writes Science Alert.
The galaxy LRG 3−757 belongs to the class of bright red galaxies and is about 100 times more massive than our Milky Way. The study showed that this black hole deviates significantly from the generally accepted relationship between the mass of black holes and the speed of stars in the galactic bulge. This suggests that in the largest galaxies, the formation of supermassive black holes may occur by other mechanisms.
Scientists suggest that the reason for this deviation may be a history of galaxy mergers, during which a significant number of stars were removed from the central regions. The researchers believe that LRG 3−757 is part of the so-called "fossil group" - a large galaxy cluster where the central galaxy significantly exceeds all the others in mass. Such structures are remnants of early mergers and have little active star formation, which makes them "red and dead".
Another possible explanation is the feedback of an active galactic nucleus, where the black hole emits powerful jets that affect the structure of the galaxy and suppress the formation of new stars. There is also a hypothesis that this ultramassive black hole could be the remnant of a superluminous quasar from the early Universe that experienced an intense growth phase.
Further observations will help to unravel the nature of this phenomenon. The Euclid mission is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new gravitational lenses in the next five years, and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will allow for more detailed studies of the dynamics of galaxies and their black holes. This opens a new era in the study of galaxy evolution and the connection between visible and dark matter.
An international team of scientists led by Carlos Melo-Carneiro has discovered one of the most massive black holes in the Universe. The ultramassive black hole at the center of the galaxy LRG 3−757 has a mass equivalent to 36 billion suns. It is a gravitational lens in the famous Cosmic Horseshoe system, located 5,5 billion light-years from Earth., writes Science Alert.
The galaxy LRG 3−757 belongs to the class of bright red galaxies and is about 100 times more massive than our Milky Way. The study showed that this black hole deviates significantly from the generally accepted relationship between the mass of black holes and the speed of stars in the galactic bulge. This suggests that in the largest galaxies, the formation of supermassive black holes may occur by other mechanisms.
Scientists suggest that the reason for this deviation may be a history of galaxy mergers, during which a significant number of stars were removed from the central regions. The researchers believe that LRG 3−757 is part of the so-called "fossil group" - a large galaxy cluster where the central galaxy significantly exceeds all the others in mass. Such structures are remnants of early mergers and have little active star formation, which makes them "red and dead".
Another possible explanation is the feedback of an active galactic nucleus, where the black hole emits powerful jets that affect the structure of the galaxy and suppress the formation of new stars. There is also a hypothesis that this ultramassive black hole could be the remnant of a superluminous quasar from the early Universe that experienced an intense growth phase.
Further observations will help to unravel the nature of this phenomenon. The Euclid mission is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new gravitational lenses in the next five years, and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will allow for more detailed studies of the dynamics of galaxies and their black holes. This opens a new era in the study of galaxy evolution and the connection between visible and dark matter.
