Astronomers spot a runaway quasar

Supermassive black holes reside at the centers of most galaxies — or do they? A new detection by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) points to an active supermassive black hole in the process of fleeing its galaxy. The astronomers who spotted it say the data present a strong case for a gravitational wave event that knocked the black hole for a loop and sent it rocketing away in one direction.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Astronomers spot a runaway quasar

Supermassive black holes reside at the centers of most galaxies — or do they? A new detection by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) points to an active supermassive black hole in the process of fleeing its galaxy. The astronomers who spotted it say the data present a strong case for a gravitational wave event that knocked the black hole for a loop and sent it rocketing away in one direction.

more…

More likely it’s the core of a galaxy that was swallowed by the host galaxy wouldn’t you say? The likelihood of a “gravitational wave event” causing a mass this large to move this fast is vanishingly small.

“3C 186’s host galaxy actually sports faint arcs of material, called tidal tails, that speak to the possibility of a past merger with another galaxy.”