Hubble Detects a Rogue Supermassive Black Hole

The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a quasar named 3C 186 that is offset from the center of its galaxy. Astronomers hypothesize that this supermassive black hole was jettisoned from the center of its galaxy by the recoil from gravitational waves produced by the merging of two supermassive black holes.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson

Music credit: "Stealth Car" by Tom Sue [GEMA] and Zac Singer [GEMA]; Ed. Berlin Production Music/Universal Publishing Production Music GmbH GEMA; Berlin Production Music; Killer Tracks Production Music

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[ashwinbhat]

How did they determine where the galactic center is? You can't tell much from the image

[athanasiosklidaras]

It's disturbing to think that there are random supermassive blackholes floating around out there...

[stren]

Its not cool, it's actually extremely HOT

[Rigel]

Totally freaking cool. You rule NASA!!!

[miabua]

Interesting! Also, I wonder how many solar systems that black hole has messed up in its way, away from the center.

[DebrajRakshitIMDeb]

The most strange thing is to imagine that we are living in a black dark space where these ginormous reactions are happening throughout billions of billions of miles(light years)

[wildmanjeff]

pretty cool. great time to be into astronomy with all the new things we are learning

[dmhshop]

Impressively cool - loved the clear explanation.

[procrasti]

So I saw an ice cream truck in my town in january at around 11pm. It showed up too early and too late at the same time.
Same thing here, two super massive black holes colliding is definitely cool, and very hot too
Thanks for sharing Katrina

[Anamnesia]

I like THIS style of video presentation! 😎

[alexandercarder]

But if the super massive black hole had been tossed from its galactic centre, would it not (in affect) drag it's galaxy along with it?

[truecrimedailypodcast]

I know it's hard to imagine but being 8 billion light years away and it's light took 8 billion years to reach us, meaning the image is 8 billion years old, what could it now look like?

[readynow]

It is incomprehensible to wrap our tiny minds around the incredible complexity of this black hole.

[aerospacenews]

Cool? Yes cool. Definitely ice cold kinda cool. Nice job Katrina & team!

[-danR]

...shoots off in the opposite direction of the strongest gravitational waves...
That's a _description_ not an explanation.

[jakejakeboom]

Can you imagine how many star systems (possibly even some with life) that SMBH has completely wrecked on its path? It would be amazing to see up close the remains of a star system that was grazed by something that huge, there'd be stellar debris everywhere.

[mikechambers]

Compared to the relatively stable positions of bodies orbiting central SMBH's, I would conjecture that 3C186 should be accreting masses along it's vector. If I unferstand a Suskind lecture I listened to last night (and I assuredly do not) from our observational perspective, these masses should appear as accretions at the event horizon boundary (and I suppose substantial fluctuations in Hawking radiation). I would also expect to see a relative train wreck of the galactic orbital motions of bodies near the 3c186's path but not directly in it. Does anyone have speculation about the speed at which these variations and disturbances might occur and whether that speed would make them observable?

[horvisnone]

And what's the distance between galaxy 3C 186 and our planet Earth?
I do not know.
I
read this: However, eight light-years from Earth in a galaxy called 3C
186, astronomers found a supermassive black hole that was thrown out of
its "throne." Now it is flying at a speed of 8, 046, 720 km per hour.

Is it somewhat exaggerated just 8 light years from our country? Is that something wrong?

[VedaFlorez]

We're have a great discussion on the term merge. Did the two black holes actually merge or just pass near each other. If the solar mass truly merged then the two met and became one, never to be moved apart. How can the black hole merge and maintain its rotation and more away from it being merged. The explanation is unclear.

[davidjhyatt]

so its speed and distance from center means it took 5m years. Assuming (because I don't know how this galaxy compares to ours) that it rotates at the same rate as ours, 1/250m years, it's rotated 7.2 degrees. can we see any effects in the galaxy when the smbh is not there? how does this affect dark matter or energy assumptions? thanks! appreciate the episode!!