Universe Today - June 8, 2009
Using a new computer model, astronomers have determined that the black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy is at least twice as big as previously thought. Weighing in at 6.4 billion times the Sun’s mass, it is the most massive black hole yet measured, and this new model suggest that the accepted black hole masses in other large nearby galaxies may be off by similar amounts. This has consequences for theories of how galaxies form and grow, and might even solve a long-standing astronomical paradox.
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Today’s conclusions are model-based, but Gebhardt also has made new telescope observations of M87 and other galaxies using new powerful instruments on the Gemini North Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. He said these data, which will be submitted for publication soon, support the current model-based conclusions about black hole mass.
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