Space
A Tiny Galaxy Has an Unusually Large Black Hole And Scientists Aren’t Sure Why
A tiny galaxy orbiting the Milky Way called Leo I could be harboring a huge secret.
According to a new analysis, the central region of Leo I has an absolutely monster supermassive black hole, compared to the mass of the galaxy. The galaxy itself is around 20 million times the mass of the Sun. The black hole is around 3.3 million solar masses – around 16 percent of the total mass of the galaxy.
Although there’s a large uncertainty margin, the result is still a huge surprise. That mass of 3.3 million solar masses is pretty danged close to the mass of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Sgr A* is around 4 million solar masses – and recent calculations put the mass of the Milky Way at around 1.3 trillion solar masses.
That’s an absolutely gobsmacking difference in the mass ratios. The possible presence of such a large black hole in such a small galaxy is surprising since we thought we had some pretty reliable rules for the ratio of a central black hole to its galaxy. But, if verified, it could tell us something new about how galaxies, and the supermassive black holes at their centers, grow and evolve.
“A black hole mass this large in Leo I is significant in many respects,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
“It is the first detection of a black hole in a dwarf spheroidal galaxy using spatially resolved kinematics, it has a mass that is similar to the total stellar mass of the system, and it is a comparable mass to that of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.”
There’s a whole swarm of dwarf galaxies in the space around the Milky Way (and around other galaxies, too), some that are in the process of colliding with and being absorbed by the other galaxy. This is thought to be an important means whereby galaxies grow larger gradually over time.
But not all dwarf galaxies are built alike, and studying them can help us understand galactic diversity, and how these objects form.
Leo I, located around 820,000 light-years from Earth, is one such potential outlier. Unlike most of the Milky Way satellites, it’s been found to have not much dark matter – the directly undetectable gravitational glue that binds the Universe.
Although we can’t probe dark matter directly, we can measure it based on the influence it has on things we can detect. Stars, for example, orbit their galaxies faster than they should if just the detectable matter was influencing them.
Astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory wanted to study Leo I’s dark matter profile, or the way the dark matter density changes from the center of the galaxy to its outskirts.
They took new observations of Leo I using the Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory, and then entered this data and sophisticated models of the galaxy into a supercomputer for analysis. And their results showed that a supermassive black hole should be lurking in the galactic center.
“The models are screaming that you need a black hole at the center; you don’t really need a lot of dark matter,” said astronomer Karl Gebhardt of UT Austin.
“You have a very small galaxy that is falling into the Milky Way, and its black hole is about as massive as the Milky Way’s. The mass ratio is absolutely huge. The Milky Way is dominant; the Leo I black hole is almost comparable.”
The team’s paper showed that previous measurements of the orbital velocities of stars in Leo I showed a strong bias towards slower stars; that’s why previous calculations may have missed such a huge mass. Since the new study claims not to have such a bias, it was able to find what others missed.
But the result is not entirely unprecedented, either.
In 2014, a dwarf galaxy with a total mass of 140 million solar masses was found to have a supermassive block hole clocking in at 21 million solar masses – around 15 percent of the total galactic mass. Then, in 2017, two more dwarf galaxies were found with black hole chonks, of 4.4 million and 5.8 million solar masses – 13 and 18 percent of the masses of their host galaxies, respectively.
So, while we currently have “no explanation for this kind of black hole in dwarf spheroidal galaxies,” according to UT Austin astronomer María José Bustamante, perhaps it’s actually quite a common occurrence.
And that could help explain how supermassive black holes get so supermassive. When two galaxies merge, eventually their supermassive black holes should, too. Which means dwarf galaxies could be feeding the black holes of huge ones.
“If the mass of Leo I’s black hole is high, that may explain how black holes grow in massive galaxies,” Gebhardt said.
The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Space
Researcher discovered mysterious structures on the Moon

Renowned ufologist and virtual archaeologist Scott Waring is back in
the spotlight with his latest discovery: mysterious structures on the
surface of the Moon.
In photographs of the Moon obtained by the American space agency NASA, he discovered something that raises many questions.
Waring’s
discovery became the subject of discussion among lovers of the
mysteries of space. The ufologist said that the photograph was published
by NASA just a few days ago, and immediately after that he began a
detailed analysis of it.
According to Waring, the photograph shows
structures that could not have formed naturally. These unusual objects
could have been built by extraterrestrial civilizations, the researcher
believes.
However,
the most surprising thing is that, according to Waring, NASA is not
even trying to hide this information. Skeptics argue that if evidence of
alien intervention was actually found on the Moon, the agency would try
to hide such facts.
However, Waring believes that the agency is
deliberately disclosing this information to generate public interest and
attention to aliens.
The researcher also calls on NASA to provide
more details about the origin of these mysterious structures and
conduct more research.
Space
The 1933 UFO Crash in Italy: The First and Forgotten Roswell?

When we think of UFO crashes, the first thing that comes to mind is
the famous Roswell incident of 1947, when a mysterious object crashed on
a ranch in New Mexico, sparking decades of speculation and controversy.
But
what if Roswell was not the first, nor the only, UFO crash on Earth?
What if there was an earlier and more obscure case that involved a
fascist dictator, a secret department, and a possible cover-up by the US
military?
That is the intriguing story of the 1933 UFO crash in
Italy, which has recently resurfaced thanks to new allegations and
evidence from researchers and former intelligence officials.
According to these sources, a bell-shaped flying saucer crashed near Magenta, a town west of Milan, on June 13, 1933.
The
craft was reportedly recovered by the Italian authorities and taken to a
nearby airfield, where it was examined by a team of experts led by none
other than Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio.
The documents include two June 1933 telegrams in Italian demanding ‘absolute silence’ over an ‘alleged landing on national soil of unknown aircraft’. Credit: dailymail.co.uk
Little is
known about the first “UFO” case in Italy: the fascist regime
immediately secreted the story. It was Roberto Pinotti, founder and
secretary of the National UFO Center, who tried to dissolve the mist of
mystery that surrounds the case.
At the “Ufology” conference,
which was held near Lake Maggiore, in Arona, he explained that “the
remains of the UFO, which in the drawings is described as a cylindrical
aircraft, with a bottleneck at the end, with portholes on the side, from
which white and red lights came out, were taken to the Siai-Marchetti
warehouses in Vergiate, where they remained for 12 years.
The
bodies of the pilots, preserved in formalin, were studied for a long
time. It is known that they were 1.80 tall, had light hair, and
oriental-looking blue eyes.
Another document, dated June 13, threatens the ‘immediate arrest’ and ‘maximum penalties’ for any journalists reporting news of an ‘aircraft of unknown nature and origin’. Credit: dailymail.co.uk
It
is therefore understandable why Mussolini thought they were German
pilots, despite the authoritative contrary opinion of Marconi himself.
The
hypothesis advanced by Pinotti could also redefine the history of the
pre-war period: “The Duce believed, perhaps, that it would be
appropriate to ally himself with a military power like that of Nazi
Germany, capable of producing an aircraft never seen before, rather than
having her as an enemy.”
The craft itself was said to be made of
an unknown metal that was resistant to heat and corrosion, and had a
complex propulsion system and electromagnetic fields.
The Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini, who was fascinated by the phenomenon, ordered
the creation of a secret department called “Gabinetto RS/33” (or RS/33
Cabinet) to study the saucer and its technology. The department was
headed by Marconi and included scientists, engineers, and military
officers. Their goal was to reverse-engineer the alien craft and use it
for military purposes.
However,
their plans were thwarted by the end of World War II, when Italy was
invaded by the Allied forces. According to some accounts, the American
troops seized the saucer and its remains and shipped them to the US,
where they became part of a covert program that collected and studied
multiple “non-human” flying saucers.
This program was allegedly
overseen by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a highly secretive
intelligence agency that operates spy satellites.
The existence
of this program was recently revealed by David Grusch, a former NRO
officer who claims to have firsthand knowledge of it. Grusch says that
he has seen documents and photos that prove that the US government has
obtained several alien crafts over the years, including the one from
Italy in 1933. He also says that he has spoken to other former
intelligence officers who were part of the program and confirmed his
story.
The 1933 UFO crash in Italy may be one of the oldest and
most forgotten cases in UAP history, but it may also be one of the most
important ones. It may hold clues to the origin and purpose of these
mysterious visitors, as well as their impact on human history and
technology.
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