Scientists Discover New Massive Black Hole That Defies Logic, Is 30 Times Larger Than It Should Be

Scientists and astronomers from U.K.’s Keele University and the University of Central Lancashire have discovered a new black hole that defies all logic. According to Science Daily, the newly discovered supermassive black hole is estimated to be over 30 times bigger than what it ideally should have been. The details of the research done by the scientists would be published in the Royal Astronomical society’s monthly notices soon.

The galaxy, which houses this supermassive black hole, is named SAGE0536AGN. It was discovered using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and is estimated to be over 9 billion-years-old. After the discovery of the galaxy, it was studied by astronomers from the research team who eventually found that there was a supermassive black hole at its center. Using the Southern African Large Telescope and by measuring the speed of the gas swirling around the galactic center, the researchers were able to deduce the size of the black hole as well. However, the results were unexpected and left them perplexed.

According to the report, whatever data they received regarding this new black hole, threw the existing theories regarding the evolution of galaxies and the behavior of black holes out of water. Primarily, the data received indicated that this black hole isn’t possible at all as per our current understanding of physics. According to CNN, the black hole at the center of the SAGE0536AGN is 30 times bigger than what was physically thought possible in a galaxy of its size.

According to the data, the black hole located at the center of the SAGE0536AGN galaxy had a mass 350 million times the mass of the Sun. The total mass of the galaxy which surrounded it was estimated to be 25 billion solar masses. This was found to be unusual because, at 350 million solar masses, it was found to be 30 times larger than expected for the size of the SAGE0536AGN galaxy.

Such was the importance of this discovery, The Royal Astronomical Society issued a press release about it. It has a quote from Dr. Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University and lead author of the new paper.

“Galaxies have a vast mass, and so do the black holes in their cores. This one though is really too big for its boots — it simply shouldn’t be possible for it to be so large,”

While researchers still do not know what caused this black hole to exist, it is now thought that the black hole grew way faster than the galaxy that surrounded it. Or it could be that the growth of the galaxy was stopped midway for some reason — leaving it with a black hole that is simply too massive for a galaxy of that size.

At this time, the SAGE0536AGN galaxy is one of its kind. They are unsure if they have discovered a new class of galaxies that exhibit a similar behavior.

The news of this oddball galaxy and its unusual supermassive black hole comes just a few days after we reported about the impending collision between two massive black holes.

[Photo by NASA/ESAvia Getty Images]