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Growing, supermassive black hole discovered

Astronomers used the Alma telescope (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array) in Chile to observe a remarkable structure in the centre of the galaxy NGC 1377, located in the constellation Eridanus.

“We were curious about this galaxy because of its bright, dust-enshrouded centre. What we weren’t expecting was this - a long, narrow jet streaming out from the galaxy nucleus,” said Susanne Aalto, professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, who led the research.

The observations with Alma unveil a jet which is 500 light years long and less than 60 light years across, travelling at speeds of at least 800,000 kilometres per hour.

Most galaxies have a supermassive black hole in their centres; these black holes can have masses of between a few million to a billion solar masses. How they grew to be so massive is a long-standing mystery for scientists.

A black hole’s presence can be seen indirectly by telescopes when matter is falling into it - a process 
which astronomers call “accretion.”
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