CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Big galaxies like the Milky Way have correspondingly big black holes. But small galaxies might have massive ones, too. A new survey picked up dozens of massive black hole candidates in diminutive dwarf galaxies.
Surprisingly, some of those potential black holes aren’t at their galaxy’s center, but instead appear to roam the outskirts, astronomer Amy Reines said May 20 at the Black Hole Initiative Conference 2019 at Harvard University. Studying these wonky monsters could help astronomers figure out the mystery of how supermassive black holes in bigger galaxies form.