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NASA Discovers Supermassive Black Hole In The Smallest Galaxy

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Sep 19, 2014 10:16 AM EDT

NASA has discovered a supermassive black hole in one of the smallest galaxies known to man. The supermassive black hole was noticed by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, when they found the small galaxy known as M60-UCD1. 

The dwarf galaxy reportedly "crams 140 million stars within a diameter of about 300 lightyears, which is only 1/500th" of the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy, according to Kpopstarz

"It is the smallest and lightest object that we know of that has a supermassive black hole," said University of Utah astronomer Anil Seth, in the press release.

"We believed this once was a very big galaxy with maybe 10 billion stars in it, but then it passed very close to the center of an even larger galaxy, M60, and in that process all the stars and dark matter in the outer part of the galaxy got torn away and became part of M60," Seth explained. "That was maybe as much as 10 billion years ago. We don't know."

"Eventually, this thing may merge with the center of M60, which has a monster black hole in it, with 4.5 billion solar masses - more than 1,000 times bigger than the supermassive black hole in our galaxy. When that happens, the black hole we found in M60-UCD1 will merge with that monster black hole," he added.

Seth further explained in an interview with ABC News, saying "In a black hole, even if you launch yourself at the speed of light, which is the fastest you can go, you can't get out of a black hole."

According to scientists, eventually, M60 will swallow the smaller galaxy and the two black holes will merge. 

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