The discovery of such a massive black hole in a dwarf galaxy could help explain both how galaxies evolve and how dark matter is distributed throughout them.
The research could not only shake up astrophysical models of how galaxies evolve, but could also help scientists better understand how the mysterious substance dark matter—which accounts for the majority of a galaxy's mass content—is distributed throughout galactic structures.
The team of astronomers reached their discovery by studying the dark matter profile of Leo I, which is how the density of dark matter changes from the dwarf galaxy's outer edge through to its center. This is achieved by measuring the gravitational influence of Leo I'sDark matter differs from the everyday matter we see all around us because it interacts weakly with other matter and also with light. The only interaction dark matter displays that is measurable is with gravity.
This central region has been somewhat overlooked in previous studies of Leo I, which focused more on the velocities of individual stars. What the team found was in the measurements previously taken there was a bias towards low-velocity stars. This had the effect of reducing the amount of matter that seemed to be enclosed within the star's orbits.
This suggested the presence of a compact and truly massive object about 3.3 million times as heavy as the sun. For comparison, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, is 4.4 million times as massive as our star.
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