There Could Be a Supermassive Black Hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud Hurling Stars at the Milky Way

This beautiful image shows the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud above the ESO's Paranal Observatory and the four Auxiliary Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Array. New research shows that the LMC may harbour a supermassive black hole that's responsible for some of the Milky Way's hypervelocity stars. Image Credit: By ESO/J. Colosimo - http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1511a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38973313

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) were first theorized to exist in the late 1980s. In 2005, the first discoveries were confirmed. HVSs travel much faster than normal stars, and sometimes, they can exceed the galactic escape velocity. Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way contains about 1,000 HVSs, and new research shows that some of these originate in the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

Does the LMC have a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that’s ejecting some HVSs into the Milky Way?

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Black Hole Jets Seen Forming in Real-Time

Artist's impression of a white dwarf embedded in the disk of a giant black hole. Credit: NASA/Sonoma State University, Aurore Simonnet

A short time ago, astronomers observed a distant supermassive black hole (SMBH) located in a galaxy 270 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. For years, this galaxy (1ES 1927+654) has been the focus of attention because of the Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) at its core. It all began in 2018 when the SMBH’s X-ray corona mysteriously disappeared, followed by a major outburst in the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. Astronomers began watching it closely, but what they saw next was completely unexpected!

As we covered in a previous article, much of the excitement was generated by the SMBH’s behavior, which suggested it was consuming a stellar remnant (a white dwarf). In addition, astronomers noted a huge increase in radio emissions and the formation of plasma jets extending from the black hole, which all happened over the course of a year. In a new paper, a team led by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) describes how they watched a plasma jet forming in real time, something astronomers have never done before.

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Sticks and Stones: The Molecular Clouds in the Heart of the Milky Way

Astronomers have created 3D maps of two giant molecular clouds in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). What happens to them in such an extreme environment? Image Credit: Alboslani et al. 2025.

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at the heart of the Milky Way holds a lot of gas. It contains about 60 million solar masses of molecular gas in complexes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), structures where stars usually form. Because of the presence of Sag. A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole (SMBH), the CMZ is an extreme environment. The gas in the CMZ is ten times more dense, turbulent, and heated than gas elsewhere in the galaxy.

How do star-forming GMCs behave in such an extreme environment?

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About a Third of Supermassive Black Holes are Hiding

A supermassive black hole surrounded by a torus of gas and dust is depicted in four different wavelengths of light in this artist’s concept. Visible light (top right) and low-energy X-rays (bottom left) are blocked by the torus; infrared (top left) is scattered and reemitted; and some high energy X-rays (bottom right) can penetrate the torus. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Supermassive black holes can have trillions of times more mass than the Sun, only exist in specific locations, and could number in the trillions. How can objects like that be hiding? They’re shielded from our view by thick columns of gas and dust.

However, astronomers are developing a way to find them: by looking for donuts that glow in the infrared.

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Astronomers See Flares Coming from the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

This artist’s conception of the mid-IR flare in Sgr A* captures the variability, or changing intensity, of the flare as the black hole’s magnetic field lines bunch together. This bunching results in magnetic reconnection, which produces particles and energy that spiral along the magnetic field lines until they cool and release their energy, spiking the intensity of the flare. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss

There’s plenty of action at the center of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole (SMBH) known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) literally holds the galaxy together. Part of that action is the creation of gigantic flares from Sgr A*, which can give off energy equivalent to 10 times the Sun’s annual energy output. However, scientists have been missing a key feature of these flares for decades – what they look like in the mid-infrared range. But now, a team led by researchers at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has published a paper that details what a flare looks like in those frequencies for the first time.

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Webb Provides an Explanation for “Little Red Dots”

A team of astronomers sifted through James Webb Space Telescope data from multiple surveys to compile one of the largest samples of “little red dots” (LRDs) to date. From their sample, they found that these mysterious red objects that appear small on the sky emerge in large numbers around 600 million years after the big bang and undergo a rapid decline in quantity around 1.5 billion years after the big bang. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)

When a new space telescope is launched, it’s designed to address specific issues in astronomy and provide critical answers to important questions. The JWST was built with four overarching science goals in mind. However, when anticipating new telescopes, astronomers are quick to point out that they’re also excited by the unexpected discoveries that new telescopes make.

There has been no shortage of unexpected discoveries regarding the JWST, especially regarding the very early Universe.

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An Early Supermassive Black Hole Took a Little Break Between Feasts

This artist’s impression shows a black hole about 800 million years after the Big Bang, during one of its short periods of rapid growth. Image Credit: Jiarong Gu

In the last couple of decades, it’s become increasingly clear that massive galaxies like our own Milky Way host supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in their centres. How they became so massive and how they affect their surroundings are active questions in astronomy. Astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered an SMBH in the early Universe that is accreting mass at a very low rate, even though the black hole is extremely massive compared to its host galaxy.

What’s going on with this SMBH, and what does it tell astronomers about the growth of these gargantuan black holes?

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The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Might Have Formed 9 Billion Years Ago

This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. A reanalysis of EHT data by NAOJ scientist suggests its accretion disk may be more elongated than shown in this image. Image Credit: EHT
This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. A reanalysis of EHT data by NAOJ scientist suggests its accretion disk may be more elongated than shown in this image. Image Credit: EHT

Large galaxies like ours are hosts to Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs.) They can be so massive that they resist comprehension, with some of them having billions of times more mass than the Sun. Ours, named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is a little more modest at about four million solar masses.

Astrophysicists have studied Sgr A* to learn more about it, including its age. They say it formed about nine billion years ago.

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A Solution to the “Final Parsec Problem?”

Simulation of merging supermassive black holes. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Noble
Simulation of merging supermassive black holes. New research shows how dark matter overcomes the Final Parsec Problem. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Noble

Supermassive Black Holes are Nature’s confounding behemoths. It’s difficult for Earth-bound minds to comprehend their magnitude and power. Astrophysicists have spent decades studying them, and they’ve made progress. But one problem still baffles even them: the Final Parsec Problem.

New research might have solved the problem, and dark matter plays a role in the solution.

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Black Holes Dominate Large Regions of Space, But They’re Mysterious

This image is from a black hole simulator. It shows a supermassive black hole, or quasar, surrounded by a swirling disk of material called an accretion disk. There are many unanswered questions about black holes and how they grow to be so massive. Simulations is one way of finding answers. Image Credit: Caltech/Phil Hopkins group

In the beginning, the Universe was all primordial gas. Somehow, some of it was swept up into supermassive black holes (SMBHs), the gargantuan singularities that reside at the heart of galaxies. The details of how that happened and how SMBHs accumulate mass are some of astrophysics’ biggest questions.

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