M60-UCD1 is a dwarf galaxy and has recently been discovered to have been hiding a big secret. M60-UDC1 is an ultra compact dwarf galaxy (UCD) that only spans over 300 light years which is nothing compared to the 100,000 light years of the Milky Way. M60-UDC1 is 54 light years away and is a satellite of the larger elliptical galaxy Messier 60 in the constellation Virgo. Although it may seem along time ago that astronomers discovered this galaxy it has only been recently discovered (September 2013) that this little galaxy is one of the most dense galaxy's known to us. This follow up study has revealed that a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy may be the cause of it.
"We've known for some time that many UCDs are a bit 'overweight'. They
just appear to be too heavy for the luminosity of their stars,"
co-author Steffen Mieske said in a press release.
"We had already published a study that suggested this additional weight
could come from the presence of supermassive black holes, but it was
only a theory. Now, by studying the movement of the stars within
M60-UCD1, we have detected the effects of such a black hole at its center. This is a very exciting result and we want to know how many more
UCDs may harbor such extremely massive objects."Supermassive black holes are the largest known types of black hole, which are over hundreds and thousands times the mass of our sun. The supermassive black hole at the center of M60-UCD1 is roughly equal to 20 million solar masses ( Meaning that this black hole is 20 million times the mass of our sun) and makes up a whopping 15% of the galaxy's total mass, compared to the black hole at the center of the milky way which is only 4 million solar masses and is less than 0.01% of our Galaxy's total mass!
"That is pretty amazing, given that the Milky Way is 500 times larger and more than 1000 times heavier than M60-UCD1," Seth explained.
The reason that this is so interesting and different is due to the fact that it is hard to say how they formed because due to their extreme proportions they should not have been formed. The most plausible theory is that the Galaxy may have been alot bigger with home to over 10 billion stars instead of the now 10 million stars and when crossing Messier 60 tidal forces basically ripped apart the galaxy leaving it to be discovered as a UCD with a supermassive black hole in the center.
Seth has explained that there is no other known way that the supermassive black hole could have formed in this tiny Galaxy. He also explains that alot of UDC's are actually probably just Galaxies that have been stripped apart by other larger Galaxies.
If this is true for M60-UCD1 then it could be possible for other dwarf Galaxies to contain supermassive black holes and in turn could potentially double the amount of known black holes in the universe.
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Sources:Astronomers Find Supermassive Black Hole In A Tiny Galaxy
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