There, somewhere in the cosmos, there might be a black hole crossing that is no longer in the center of its galaxy. In a journal published by the American Astronomical Society, scientists noticed that the supermassive black hole believed to be the center of Abell 2261 may no longer exist. Instead, scientists say it could have been removed from its own galaxy due to a process known as gravity wave recoil.
During a recoil, two black holes next to each other essentially merge, sending waves into space. In theory, these waves could push the black hole away from its current location, according to a report by Forbes. “It’s enough to get the black hole out of the galaxy and it’s long gone. It would be a cruise in intergalactic space, “Kayhan Gultekin, the newspaper’s chief astronomer, told the magazine.
In the paper, the editors of the original journal make sure that they could be technically in their current location; only they can’t locate him now that they’ve been able to locate him on previous occasions.
“However, Gultekin says it is too early to conclude that there is no supermassive black hole in the A2261-BCG.” Forbes add. “But if it’s not there, it would be the only galaxy so large to be discovered without such a massive black hole in its center. Even the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way is relatively quiet, but it’s there.”
In an interview with Vice Last summer, Gultekin acknowledged that there is still much to learn about black holes, and solving this mystery could go a long way in answering some of the biggest questions.
“What excites me the most is finding out about supermassive black holes through gravitational waves,” Gultekin said. “We need to know for sure that it’s coming together and that would be a way to show that this is happening.”
“There are all sorts of things you can learn with gravitational waves about supermassive black holes, as a population or individual sources, that you are really hard or impossible to learn with traditional electromagnetic astronomy,” he added.
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