Most black holes have little mass compared to their host galaxy, but a recently discovered black hole grew so quickly the host galaxy couldn’t keep pace.
The discovery has astronomers questioning assumptions about how galaxies develop.
Benny Trakhtenbrot, a researcher at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Astronomy, together with an international team of astrophysicists, was hunting for ancient massive black holes using the 10 meter Keck telescope in Hawaii. Although this kind of observations are routine for them, Trakhtenbrot and the team were surprised by the first black hole they observed.
The measurements correspond to the mass of a typical galaxy.
