Astronomers are on the hunt as a supermassive black hole, estimated to weigh between 3 – 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, is seemingly missing. While this has now become a popular topic on social media (with users understandably confused), the mystery begins in 1999, when astronomers had expected to be able to trace it. It is a common misconception that it disappeared recently, while in reality it has not even been observed yet.
First off, what is a supermassive black hole?
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape from it. As the name “supermassive” implies, a supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole known to exist.
Almost all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at its centre, including our own Milky Way Galaxy, which is why NASA had been searching for one in the distant galaxy cluster, Abell 2261. According to NASA, they obtained data before in 1999, 2004 and 2018 onward using the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Despite this, the black hole has still managed to elude them so far.
An image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261, where the supermassive black hole is thought to have been located.
However, using more recent data, the team working on this search could find the missing black hole’s potential whereabouts soon. Combining this with the ideas and theories they have formed, there is a good chance this mystery will be solved one day, but until then we will have to wait and see.
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