The Second-Closest Supermassive Black Hole Might be in a Nearby Dwarf Galaxy - by spacewriter
This galaxy’s supermassive black hole’s existence was suggested in 2021 by astronomers who noticed that stars at the heart of Leo 1 were speeding up as they approached. That’s pretty good evidence for a black hole. However, imaging the emissions from any material spiraling into the black hole was impossible. And thus, Leo 1’s black hole remained tantalizingly out of reach.
What makes this supermassive black hole in a dwarf spheroidal such a challenge to understand? Let’s look at its home.like many other dwarf spheroidals. It has stars, to be sure, but not a lot of gas. Until recently astronomers didn’t think these types of galaxies had central supermassive black holes. That’s because these monsters accrete and grow by feeding on gas and other material that wanders too close.
Leo 1 is also a fairly young galaxy. It last went through a star-forming epoch that began some 6 billion years ago and ended about a billion years ago. Star formation gobbles up a lot of gas. In addition, since this galaxy orbits the Milky Way, a close passage may have stripped more gas away. That would have also slowed the star formation rate and robbed the black hole of the fuel it needs.
U Camelopardalis, or U Cam for short, is a red giant star nearing the end of its life. It’s losing mass as it dies, and that material is ejected into space. Red giant stars similar to this one, but in Leo 1 are losing mass, too. If they wander too close to Leo 1*, that mass gets caught up in the gravitational pull of the Leo 1* black hole. Emissions from that gas as it gets superheated can be traced, and used to help understand more about this black hole.
Most galaxies host central supermassive black holes that are a small percent of their total mass. That’s true of the Milky Way. But, Leo 1* breaks the mold. “In the case of Leo I,” Loeb said, “we would expect a much smaller black hole. Instead, Leo I appears to contain a black hole a few million times the mass of the Sun, similar to that hosted by the Milky Way. This is exciting because science usually advances the most when the unexpected happens.
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