Supermassive black

hole

This is the first direct image taken of a

supermassive black hole, located at the
galactic core of Messier
87.[1][2] It shows a heated accretion ring
orbiting the object at a mean separation
A supermassive black hole (SMBH or
sometimes SBH) is the largest type of
black hole, containing a mass of the order
of hundreds of thousands to billions of
times the mass of the Sun (M☉). Black
holes are a class of astronomical object
that have undergone gravitational
collapse, leaving behind spheroidal
regions of space from which nothing can
escape, not even light. Observational
evidence indicates that nearly all large
galaxies contain a supermassive black
hole, located at the galaxy's center.[3][4] In
the case of the Milky Way, the
supermassive black hole corresponds to
the location of Sagittarius A* at the
Galactic Core.[5][6] Accretion of interstellar
gas onto supermassive black holes is the
process responsible for powering quasars
and other types of active galactic nuclei.

Description

Supermassive black holes have properties

that distinguish them from lower-mass
classifications. First, the average density
of a SMBH (defined as the mass of the
black hole divided by the volume within its
Schwarzschild radius) can be less than
the density of water in the case of some
SMBHs.[7] This is because the
Schwarzschild radius is directly
proportional to its mass. Since the volume
of a spherical object (such as the event
horizon of a non-rotating black hole) is
directly proportional to the cube of the
radius, the density of a black hole is
inversely proportional to the square of the
mass, and thus higher mass black holes
have lower average density.[8] In addition,
the tidal forces in the vicinity of the event
horizon are significantly weaker for
supermassive black holes. The tidal force
on a body at the event horizon is likewise
inversely proportional to the square of the
mass:[9] a person on the surface of the
Earth and one at the event horizon of a 10
million M☉ black hole experience about the
same tidal force between their head and
feet. Unlike with stellar mass black holes,
one would not experience significant tidal
force until very deep into the black hole.[10]

Some astronomers have begun labeling

black holes of at least 10 billion M☉ as
ultramassive black holes.[11][12] Most
of these (such as TON 618) are
associated with exceptionally energetic
quasars.

History of research

The story of how supermassive black

holes were found began with the
investigation by Maarten Schmidt of the
radio source 3C 273 in 1963. Initially this
was thought to be a star, but the spectrum
proved puzzling. It was determined to be
hydrogen emission lines that had been
red shifted, indicating the object was
moving away from the Earth.[13] Hubble's
law showed that the object was located
several billion light-years away, and thus
must be emitting the energy equivalent of
hundreds of galaxies. The rate of light
variations of the source, dubbed a quasi-
stellar object, or quasar, suggested the
emitting region had a diameter of one
parsec or less. Four such sources had
been identified by 1964.[14]
In 1963, Fred Hoyle and W. A. Fowler
proposed the existence of hydrogen
burning supermassive stars (SMS) as an
explanation for the compact dimensions
and high energy output of quasars. These
would have a mass of about 105 – 109 M☉.
However, Richard Feynman noted stars
above a certain critical mass are
dynamically unstable and would collapse
into a black hole, at least if they were non-
rotating.[15] Fowler then proposed that
these supermassive stars would undergo
a series of collapse and explosion
oscillations, thereby explaining the energy
output pattern. Appenzeller and Fricke
(1972) built models of this behavior, but
found that the resulting star would still
undergo collapse, concluding that a non-
rotating 0.75 × 106 M☉ SMS "cannot
escape collapse to a black hole by
burning its hydrogen through the CNO
cycle".[16]

Edwin E. Salpeter and Yakov B.

Zel'dovich made the proposal in 1964 that
matter falling onto a massive compact
object would explain the properties of
quasars. It would require a mass of
around 108 M☉ to match the output of
these objects. Donald Lynden-Bell noted
in 1969 that the infalling gas would form a
flat disk that spirals into the central
"Schwarzschild throat". He noted that the
relatively low output ofnearby galactic
cores implied these were old, inactive
quasars.[17] Meanwhile, in 1967, Martin
Ryle and Malcolm Longair suggested that
nearly all sources of extra-galactic radio
emission could be explained by a model in
which particles are ejected from galaxies
at relativistic velocities; meaning they are
moving near the speed of light.[18] Martin
Ryle, Malcolm Longair, and Peter Scheuer
then proposed in 1973 that the compact
central nucleus could be the original
energy source for these relativistic jets.[17]
Arthur M. Wolfe and Geoffrey
Burbidge noted in 1970 that the large
velocity
dispersion of the stars in the nuclear
region of elliptical galaxies could only be
explained by a large mass concentration
at the nucleus; larger than could be
explained by ordinary stars. They showed
that the behavior could be explained by a
massive black hole with up to 1010 M☉, or
a large number of smaller black holes with
masses below 103 M☉.[19] Dynamical
evidence for a massive dark object was
found at the core of the active elliptical
galaxy Messier 87 in 1978, initially
estimated at 5 × 109 M☉.[20] Discovery of
similar behavior in other galaxies soon
followed, including the Andromeda Galaxy
in 1984 and the Sombrero Galaxy
in 1988.[3]
Donald Lynden-Bell and Martin Rees
hypothesized in 1971 that the center of the
Milky Way galaxy would contain a massive
black hole.[21] Sagittarius A* was
discovered and named on February 13
and 15, 1974, by astronomers Bruce
Balick and Robert Brown using the Green
Bank Interferometer of the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory.[22] They
discovered a radio source that emits
synchrotron radiation; it was found to be
dense and immobile because of its
gravitation. This was, therefore, the first
indication that a supermassive black hole
exists in the center of the Milky Way.

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched

in 1990, provided the resolution needed
to perform more refined observations of
galactic nuclei. In 1994 the Faint Object
Spectrograph on the Hubble was used to
observe Messier 87, finding that ionized
gas was orbiting the central part of the
nucleus at a velocity of ±500 km/s. The
data indicated a concentrated mass of

(2.4 ± 0.7) × 109 M☉ lay within a 0.25″

span, providing strong evidence of a
supermassive black hole.[23] Using the
Very Long Baseline Array to observe
Messier 106, Miyoshi et al. (1995)
were able to demonstrate that the
emission from an H2O maser in this
galaxy came from a gaseous disk in
the nucleus that orbited a concentrated
mass of
3.6 × 107 M☉, which was constrained to a
radius of 0.13 parsecs. They noted that a
swarm of solar mass black holes within a
radius this small would not survive for long
without undergoing collisions, making a
supermassive black hole the sole viable
candidate.[24]
On April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon
Telescope project released the first
image
of a black hole, in the center of the
galaxy Messier 87.

Formation

An artist's conception of a supermassive

black hole surrounded by an accretion
disk and emitting a relativistic jet

The origin of supermassive black holes

remains an open field of research.
Astrophysicists agree that once a black
hole is in place in the center of a galaxy,
it
can grow by accretion of matter and by
merging with other black holes. There
are, however, several hypotheses for the
formation mechanisms and initial masses
of the progenitors, or "seeds", of
supermassive black holes.

One hypothesis is that the seeds are

black
holes of tens or perhaps hundreds of solar
masses that are left behind by the
explosions of massive stars and grow by
accretion of matter. Another model
hypothesizes that before the first stars,
large gas clouds could collapse into a
"quasi-star", which would in turn collapse
into a black hole of around 20 M☉.[25]
These stars may have also been formed
by dark matter halos drawing in enormous
amounts of gas by gravity, which would
then produce supermassive stars with tens
of thousands of solar masses.[26][27] The
"quasi-star" becomes unstable to radial
perturbations because of electron-positron
pair production in its core and could
collapse directly into a black hole without a
supernova explosion (which would eject
most of its mass, preventing the black hole
from growing as fast). Given sufficient
mass nearby, the black hole could accrete
to become an intermediate-mass black
hole and possibly a SMBH if the accretion
rate persists.[25]
 Artist's
impression of
the huge outflow
ejected from the
quasar SDSS
J1106+1939[28]

Artist's
illustration of
galaxy with jets
from a
supermassive
black hole.[29]
Another model involves a dense stellar
cluster undergoing core-collapse as the
negative heat capacity of the system
drives the velocity dispersion in the core to
relativistic speeds.[30] Finally, primordial
black holes could have been produced
directly from external pressure in the first
moments after the Big Bang. These
primordial black holes would then have
more time than any of the above models
to accrete, allowing them sufficient time to
reach supermassive sizes. Formation of
black holes from the deaths of the first
stars has been extensively studied and
corroborated by observations. The other
models for black hole formation listed
above are theoretical.

The difficulty in forming a supermassive

black hole resides in the need for
enough matter to be in a small enough
volume.
This matter needs to have very little
angular momentum in order for this to
happen. Normally, the process of
accretion involves transporting a large
initial endowment of angular momentum
outwards, and this appears to be the
limiting factor in black hole growth. This is
a major component of the theory of
accretion disks. Gas accretion is the most
efficient and also the most conspicuous
way in which black holes grow. The
majority of the mass growth of
supermassive black holes is thought to
occur through episodes of rapid gas
accretion, which are observable as
active galactic nuclei or quasars.
Observations reveal that quasars were
much more frequent when the Universe
was younger, indicating that
supermassive black holes formed and
grew early. A major constraining factor
for theories of supermassive black hole
formation is the observation of distant
luminous quasars, which indicate that
supermassive black holes of billions of
solar masses had already formed when
the Universe was
less than one billion years old. This
suggests that supermassive black holes
arose very early in the Universe, inside
the first massive galaxies.

Artist's impression of stars born in

winds from supermassive black
holes.[31]

A vacancy exists in the observed mass

distribution of black holes. Black holes
that spawn from dying stars have masses
5–80 M☉. The minimal supermassive
black hole is approximately a hundred
thousand solar masses. Mass scales
between these ranges are dubbed
intermediate-mass black holes. Such a
gap suggests a different formation
process. However, some models[32]
suggest that ultraluminous X-ray
sources (ULXs) may be black holes from
this missing group.

There is, however, an upper limit to how

large supermassive black holes can grow.
So-called ultramassive black holes
(UMBHs), which are at least ten times the
size of most supermassive black holes, at
10 billion solar masses or more, appear to
have a theoretical upper limit of around 50
billion solar masses, as anything above
this slows growth down to a crawl (the
slowdown tends to start around 10 billion
solar masses) and causes the unstable
accretion disk surrounding the black hole
to coalesce into stars that orbit
it.[33][34][35][36]

A small minority of sources argue that

distant supermassive black holes whose
large size is hard to explain so soon
after the Big Bang, such as ULAS
J1342+0928,[37] may be evidence that our
universe is the result of a Big Bounce,
instead of a Big Bang, with these
supermassive black holes being formed
before the Big Bounce.[38][39]

Activity and galactic

evolution

Gravitation from supermassive black holes

in the center of many galaxies is thought
to power active objects such as Seyfert
galaxies and quasars. An active galactic
nucleus (AGN) is now considered to be a
galactic core hosting a massive black hole
that is accreting matter and displays a
sufficiently strong luminosity. The nuclear
region of the Milky Way, for example,
lacks sufficient luminosity to satisfy this
condition. The unified model of AGN is
the concept that the large range of
observed properties of the AGN taxonomy
can be explained using just a small
number of physical parameters. For the
initial model, these values consisted of
the angle of the accretion disk's torus to
the line of sight and the luminosity of the
source. AGN can be divided into two main
groups: a radiative mode AGN in which
most of the output is in the form of
electromagnetic radiation through an
optically thick accretion disk, and a jet
mode in which relativistic jets emerge
perpendicular to the disk.[40]
An empirical correlation between the size
of supermassive black holes and the
stellar velocity dispersion of a galaxy
bulge[41] is called the M-sigma relation.

Evidence

Doppler measurements

Simulation of a side view of black hole

with transparent toroidal ring of ionised
matter according to a proposed model [42]
for Sgr A*. This image shows the result of
bending of light from behind the black
hole, and it also shows the asymmetry
arising by the
Doppler effect from the extremely high
orbital speed of the matter in the ring.

Some of the best evidence for the

presence of black holes is provided by the
Doppler effect whereby light from nearby
orbiting matter is red-shifted when
receding and blue-shifted when
advancing. For matter very close to a
black hole the orbital speed must be
comparable with the speed of light, so
receding matter will appear very faint
compared with advancing matter, which
means that systems with intrinsically
symmetric discs and rings will acquire a
highly asymmetric visual appearance. This
effect has been
allowed for in modern computer generated
images such as the example presented
here, based on a plausible model[42] for
the supermassive black hole in Sgr A* at
the centre of our own galaxy. However the
resolution provided by presently available
telescope technology is still insufficient to
confirm such predictions directly.

What already has been observed directly

in many systems are the lower non-
relativistic velocities of matter orbiting
further out from what are presumed to be
black holes. Direct Doppler measures of
water masers surrounding the nuclei of
nearby galaxies have revealed a very fast
Keplerian motion, only possible with a
high concentration of matter in the center.
Currently, the only known objects that can
pack enough matter in such a small space
are black holes, or things that will evolve
into black holes within astrophysically
short timescales. For active galaxies
farther away, the width of broad spectral
lines can be used to probe the gas orbiting
near the event horizon. The technique of
reverberation mapping uses variability of
these lines to measure the mass and
perhaps the spin of the black hole that
powers active galaxies.
In the Milky Way

Inferred orbits of 6 stars around

supermassive black hole candidate
Sagittarius A* at the Milky Way galactic
center[43]

Astronomers are very confident that the

Milky Way galaxy has a supermassive
black hole at its center, 26,000 light-
years from the Solar System, in a region
called Sagittarius A*[44] because:
The star S2 follows an elliptical orbit
with a period of 15.2 years and a
pericenter (closest distance) of 17 light-
hours (1.8 × 1013 m or 120 AU) from the
center of the central object.[45]
From the motion of star S2, the object's
mass can be estimated as 4.1
million M☉,[46][47] or about 8.2 × 1036 kg.
The radius of the central object must be
less than 17 light-hours, because
otherwise S2 would collide with it.
Observations of the star S14[48] indicate
that the radius is no more than 6.25
light-hours, about the diameter of
Uranus' orbit.
 No known astronomical object other
than a black hole can contain 4.1
million M☉ in this volume of space.
Infrared observations of bright flare
activity near Sagittarius A* show orbital
motion of plasma with a period of
45 ± 15 min at a separation of six to ten
times the gravitational radius of the
candidate SMBH. This emission is
consistent with a circularized orbit of a
polarized "hot spot" on an accretion disk in
a strong magnetic field. The radiating
matter is orbiting at 30% of the speed of
light just outside the innermost stable
circular orbit.[49]
On January 5, 2015, NASA reported
observing an X-ray flare 400 times
brighter than usual, a record-breaker,
from Sagittarius A*. The unusual event
may have been caused by the breaking
apart of an asteroid falling into the black
hole or by the entanglement of magnetic
field lines within gas flowing into
Sagittarius A*, according to
astronomers.[50]
 Detection of an unusually bright X-
ray flare from Sagittarius A*, a
supermassive black hole in the
center of the Milky Way galaxy.[50]

Outside the Milky Way

Artist's impression of a supermassive
black hole tearing apart a star. Below:
supermassive black hole devouring a
star in galaxy RX J1242-11 – X-ray (left)
and optical (right).[51]

Unambiguous dynamical evidence for

supermassive black holes exists only in
a handful of galaxies;[52] these include
the Milky Way, the Local Group galaxies
M31 and M32, and a few galaxies
beyond the Local Group, e.g. NGC 4395.
In these galaxies, the mean square (or
rms)
velocities of the stars or gas rises
proportionally to 1/r near the center,
indicating a central point mass. In all other
galaxies observed to date, the rms
velocities are flat, or even falling, toward
the center, making it impossible to state
with certainty that a supermassive black
hole is present.[52] Nevertheless, it is
commonly accepted that the center of
nearly every galaxy contains a
supermassive black hole.[53] The reason
for this assumption is the M-sigma
relation, a tight (low scatter) relation
between the mass of the hole in the 10 or
so galaxies with secure detections, and
the velocity dispersion of the stars in the
bulges of those galaxies.[54] This
correlation, although based on just a
handful of galaxies, suggests to many
astronomers a strong connection between
the formation of the black hole and the
galaxy itself.[53]

Hubble Space Telescope photograph of

the 4,400 light-year long relativistic jet of
Messier 87, which is matter being
ejected by the 6.4 × 109 M☉
supermassive black hole at the center of
the galaxy
The nearby Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5
million light-years away, contains a
(1.1–2.3) × 108 (110–230 million) M☉
central black hole, significantly larger than
the Milky Way's.[55] The largest
supermassive black hole in the Milky
Way's vicinity appears to be that of M87,
at a mass of
(6.4 ± 0.5) × 109 (c. 6.4 billion) M☉ at a
distance of 53.5 million light-years.[56][57]
The supergiant elliptical galaxy NGC
4889, at a distance of 336 million light-
years away in the Coma Berenices
constellation, contains a black hole
measured to be 2.1 × 1010 (21 billion)
M☉.[58]
Masses of black holes in quasars can be
estimated via indirect methods that are
subject to substantial uncertainty. The
quasar TON 618 is an example of an
object with an extremely large black hole,
estimated at 6.6 × 1010 (66 billion) M☉.[59]
Its redshift is 2.219. Other examples of
quasars with large estimated black hole
masses are the hyperluminous quasar
APM 08279+5255, with an estimated
mass of 2.3 × 1010 (23 billion) M☉, and
the quasar S5 0014+81, with a mass of
4.0 × 1010 (40 billion) M☉, or 10,000
times the mass of the black hole at the
Milky Way Galactic Center.
Some galaxies, such as the galaxy 4C
+37.11, appear to have two supermassive
black holes at their centers, forming a
binary system. If they collided, the event
would create strong gravitational
waves.[60] Binary supermassive black
holes are believed to be a common
consequence of galactic mergers.[61] The
binary pair in OJ 287, 3.5 billion light-
years away, contains the most massive
black hole in a pair, with a mass
estimated at 18 billion M☉.[62] In 2011, a
super-massive black hole was discovered
in the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10, which
has no bulge. The precise implications for
this discovery on black hole formation are
unknown, but
may indicate that black holes formed
before bulges.[63]
On March 28, 2011, a supermassive black
hole was seen tearing a mid-size star
apart.[64] That is the only likely explanation
of the observations that day of sudden X-
ray radiation and the follow-up broad-band
observations.[65][66] The source was
previously an inactive galactic nucleus,
and from study of the outburst the galactic
nucleus is estimated to be a SMBH with
mass of the order of a million solar
masses. This rare event is assumed to be
a relativistic outflow (material being
emitted in a jet at a significant fraction of
the speed of light) from a star tidally
disrupted by the SMBH. A significant
fraction of a solar mass of material is
expected to have accreted onto the
SMBH. Subsequent long-term observation
will allow this assumption to be confirmed
if the emission from the jet decays at the
expected rate for mass accretion onto a
SMBH.

Play media

A gas cloud with several times the mass

of the Earth
is accelerating towards a supermassive
black hole at
the centre of the Milky Way.

In 2012, astronomers reported an

unusually large mass of approximately 17
billion M☉ for the black hole in the
compact, lenticular galaxy NGC 1277,
which lies 220 million light-years away in
the constellation Perseus. The putative
black hole has approximately 59 percent
of the mass of the bulge of this lenticular
galaxy (14 percent of the total stellar mass
of the galaxy).[67] Another study reached a
very different conclusion: this black hole is
not particularly overmassive, estimated at
between 2 and 5 billion M☉ with 5
billion M☉ being the most likely value.[68]
On February 28, 2013 astronomers
reported on the use of the NuSTAR
satellite to accurately measure the spin of
a supermassive black hole for the first
time, in NGC 1365, reporting that the
event horizon was spinning at almost the
speed of light.[69][70]

Hubble view of a supermassive

black hole "burping".[71]
In September 2014, data from different X-
ray telescopes has shown that the
extremely small, dense, ultracompact
dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 hosts a 20
million solar mass black hole at its center,
accounting for more than 10% of the total
mass of the galaxy. The discovery is quite
surprising, since the black hole is five
times more massive than the Milky Way's
black hole despite the galaxy being less
than five-thousandths the mass of the
Milky Way.

Some galaxies, however, lack any

supermassive black holes in their centers.
Although most galaxies with no
supermassive black holes are very small,
dwarf galaxies, one discovery remains
mysterious: The supergiant elliptical cD
galaxy A2261-BCG has not been found to
contain an active supermassive black
hole, despite the galaxy being one of the
largest galaxies known; ten times the size
and one thousand times the mass of the
Milky Way. Since a supermassive black
hole will only be visible while it is
accreting, a supermassive black hole can
be nearly invisible, except in its effects on
stellar orbits.

In December 2017, astronomers

reported the detection of the most distant
quasar
currently known, ULAS J1342+0928,
containing the most distant supermassive
black hole, at a reported redshift of z =
7.54, surpassing the redshift of 7 for the
previously known most distant quasar
ULAS J1120+0641.[72][73][74]

Hawking radiation

Hawking radiation is black-body radiation

that is predicted to be released by black
holes, due to quantum effects near the
event horizon. This radiation reduces the
mass and energy of black holes, causing
them to shrink and ultimately vanish. If
black holes evaporate via Hawking
radiation, a supermassive black hole with a
mass of 1011 (100 billion) M☉ will evaporate
in around 2×10100 years.[75] Some monster
black holes in the universe are predicted to
continue to grow up to perhaps 1014 M☉
during the collapse of superclusters of
galaxies. Even these would evaporate over a
timescale of up to 10106 years.[76]