Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies

Details Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies

2011-12-05

arxiv.org/abs/1112.1078v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

To be published in the December 8 edition of Nature. Body: 4 pg, 3 figures. Supplement: 8 pg, 7 figures, 4 tables

Scientific paper

10.1038/nature10636

Observational work conducted over the last few decades indicates that all massive galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centres. Although the luminosities and brightness fluctuations of quasars in the early Universe suggest that some are powered by black holes with masses greater than 10 billion solar masses, the remnants of these objects have not been found in the nearby Universe. The giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 hosts the hitherto most massive known black hole, which has a mass of 6.3 billion solar masses. Here we report that NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in a cluster at a distance from Earth of 98 megaparsecs, has a central black hole with a mass of 9.7 billion solar masses, and that a black hole of comparable or greater mass is present in NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster (at a distance of 103 megaparsecs). These two black holes are significantly more massive than predicted by linearly extrapolating the widely-used correlations between black hole mass and the stellar velocity dispersion or bulge luminosity of the host galaxy. Although these correlations remain useful for predicting black hole masses in less massive elliptical galaxies, our measurements suggest that different evolutionary processes influence the growth of the largest galaxies and their black holes.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-379578