Supermassive Black Hole Is Thrown Out of Galaxy

DarkKnightRadick writes "An undergrad student at the University of Utrecht, Marianne Heida, has found evidence of a supermassive black hole being tossed out of its galaxy. According to the article, the black hole — which has a mass equivalent to one billion suns — is possibly the culmination of two galaxies merging (or colliding, depending on how you like to look at it) and their black holes merging, creating one supermassive beast. The black hole was found using the Chandra Source Catalog (from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory). The direction of the expulsion is also possibly indicative of the direction of rotation of the two black holes as they circled each other before merging."

Comments

The BBC is a little more skeptical

[Xtifr]

The BBC is a little more skeptical, noting "there are alternative explanations for the bright X-ray source; it could also be a Type IIn supernova, or an ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) with an optical counterpart (which could represent several phenomena)."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10108226.stm

I might argue that it is an ultra-luminous X-ray source with an optical counterpart that could represent several phenomena, with one of those phenomena being a super-massive black hole being ejected from a galaxy. But hey, that's just me! :)

Incredible Energies Involved

[ScentCone]

There was so much power involved in the interaction between those two black holes that millions of apostrophes were flung violently out of the two merging galaxies. One of them landed in the middle of this summary's word "its" and making the editor appear to be an idiot.

I mean, I can't think of any other reason it's there.

Re:The comedy is too easy on this one...

[Sulphur]

It all started with a LHC.