Smallest Galaxies hosting massive black holes discovered

Smallest Galaxies hosting massive black holes discovered

Question: Very Large Array (VLA), a radio astronomy observatory which led to the recent discovery of smallest galaxies known to host massive black holes, is located in-
(a) Paris
(b) Hawaii Island
(c) New York
(d) Central New Mexico
Answer: (d)
Related facts:

  • Published in January 2020; a research report mentioned that Astronomers have discovered some of the smallest galaxies known to host massive black holes.
  • Astronomers declared that 13 massive black holes, about 4, 00,000 times as heavy as the Sun, residing in these dwarf galaxies.
  • The scientists used the Very Large Array (VLA), a radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico in the U.S., to make the discovery.
  • With these findings it can be revealed that how such black holes formed in the early universe in space exhibiting ultrahigh gravitational force.
  • It should be known that even light cannot escape from black holes.
  • The study was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal.
  • Astronomers have estimated that recently discovered dwarf galaxies are more than 100 times smaller than our own Milky Way.
  • According to the researchers, including those from Montana State University in the U.S., these galaxies are situated so far away that light from the Earth would take less than a billion years to reach them.

Links:
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/massive-black-holes-found-in-dwarf-galaxies/article30491772.ece
https://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-find-13-wandering-black-holes-in-dwarf-galaxies