'Cannibal' Galaxy ESO 243-49 in Phoenix: Black Hole Location | Hubble

'Cannibal' Galaxy ESO 243-49 in Phoenix: Unusual Black Hole Location | Hubble

A star cluster surrounds the wayward black hole in distant 'cannibal' galaxy ESO 243-49 located above the galactic plane (circled). This spectacular edge-on galaxy in the Phoenix constellation, called ESO 243-49, is home to an intermediate-mass black hole that may have come from a cannibalized dwarf galaxy. The black hole has an estimated mass of 20,000 Suns. This is an unlikely place for such a massive back hole to exist, unless it belonged to a small galaxy that was gravitationally torn apart by ESO 243-49.

The circle identifies a unique X-ray source that pinpoints the black hole. The X-rays are believed to be radiation from a hot accretion disc around the black hole. The blue light not only comes from a hot accretion disc, but also from a cluster of hot young stars that formed around the black hole. 

Galaxy ESO 243-49 is 290 million light-years from Earth. Hubble cannot resolve the stars individually because the suspected cluster is too far away. Their presence is inferred from the color and brightness of the light coming from the black hole’s location.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and S. Farrell (University of Sydney, Australia and University of Leicester, UK)

Release Date: Feb. 15, 2012

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