Dwarf galaxies are the "little guy" of the universe; but new research suggests even they could contain black holes.
Researchers have found evidence that over 100 dwarf galaxies contain black holes, a Yale University news release reported. In the past researchers thought these galaxies were too small to host the massive objects.
"These galaxies are comparable in size to the Magellanic Clouds, dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way," Yale astronomer Marla Geha , associate professor of astronomy, said in the news release. "Previously, such galaxies were thought to be too small to have such massive black holes."
Dwarf galaxies are "small, faint, low-mass galaxies with relatively few stars compared with, say, the Milky Way," the news release reported.
Black holes are regions of space where the matter is so densely packed that even light cannot escape its grips; massive black holes are the most extreme cases of this phenomenon.
Many of the dwarf galaxies the researchers analyzed had light patterns that suggested the presence of black holes. These black holes would be 100,000 times the mass of our own Sun; this is less impressive than black holes seen in larger galaxies.
"The research also offers new evidence for the origin of supermassive black hole," the researchers said in the news release.
The researchers looked at 25,000 galaxies using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. They observed light signals that indicated the presence of black holes in 151 dwarfs, which is less than one percent, Sky & Telescope reported.
"This was just a first step," Amy Reines, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), told Sky & Telescope.
Reines is the lead author of the research paper titled , "Dwarf Galaxies with Optical Signatures of Active Massive Black Holes." The paper was co-authored by Geha and Jenny Greene of Princeton.
