ScienceNews - June 8, 2009
Astronomers report that some of the biggest supermassive black holes in nearby galaxies are at least twice and possibly four times as heavy as previously estimated. The findings come from new simulations by two independent teams of researchers, as well as new observations of stars whipping around a handful of supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies no more than a few hundred million light-years from Earth.
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Accounting for dark matter “is an effect that in retrospect is obvious,” said Gebhardt, and “in some galaxies like M87, it can be very important.” Unpublished simulations of three other galaxies show signs of a similar increase, he notes. And high-resolution observations of M87 by Gebhardt and colleagues using the Gemini North telescope atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea agree with the revised theoretical estimate, he said.
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