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Scientists have discovered a small but extremely powerful black hole MQ1. The newly discovered black hole is located in the M83 galaxy and is just 62 miles wide.

The black hole named MQ1 is powered by two huge jets that shoot out 20 light years from either side of the black hole. 

"MQ1 is classed as a microquasar - a black hole surrounded by a bubble of hot gas, which is heated by two jets just outside the black hole, powerfully shooting out energy in opposite directions, acting like cosmic sandblasters pushing out on the surrounding gas," said  Curtin University senior research fellow Dr. Roberto Soria, who is part of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and led the team investigating MQ1, according to Science 2.0. 

"The significance of the huge jet power measured for MQ1 goes beyond this particular galaxy: it helps astronomers understand and quantify the strong effect that black hole jets have on the surrounding gas, which gets heated and swept away."

Researchers noted that despite the 100 km of width the black hole in MQ1 is much bigger than our solar system. Normally black holes vary in sizes and are classed as either stellar mass (less than about 70 times of the mass of the sun) or supermassive (millions of times of the mass of the sun). 

"This must have been a significant factor in the early stages of galaxy evolution, 12 billion years ago, because we have evidence that powerful black holes like MQ1, which are rare today, were much more common at the time," Soria added.

"By studying microquasars such as MQ1, we get a glimpse of how the early universe evolved, how fast quasars grew and how much energy black holes provided to their environment."

The study was published in the journal Science.