Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole that escaped from its galaxy, dragging a string of stars behind it at 5.6 million km/h

A supermassive black hole has left its own galaxy, taking a few stars with it. Astronomers claim this is the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes are capable of travelling between galaxies.

Here's What We Know

Scientists discovered the object using Hubble while observing the dwarf galaxy RCP 28, which is 7.5 billion light years away. The space telescope saw the black hole as a bright band of light.

It was over 200,000 light years long. That's about twice the width of the Milky Way. Scientists speculate that the strip of light is made up of compressed gas in which new stars are formed. The black hole has 20 times the mass of the Sun. It travels at 4,500 Mach (5.6 million km/h) away from its home galaxy.

Scientists say active supermassive black holes eject jets of matter at high speeds. These are visible to us as streaks of light and are called astrophysical jets. However, jets weaken as they move away from the source, while the tail of the black hole detected by the Hubble telescope only gets stronger. In addition, the trail remains linear, although the jets tend to fan out.

Scientists claim that if their assumptions are confirmed, they have the first clear evidence that supermassive black holes can leave galaxies. The cause may be the gravitational interaction of three bodies of equal mass, resulting in the formation of a binary and the ejection of a third body.

Source: space