Runaway Black Hole Near RCP28

Runaway Black Hole Near RCP28

This Hubble Space Telescope archival photo captures a curious linear feature that is so unusual it was first dismissed as an imaging artifact from Hubble's cameras. But follow-up spectroscopic observations reveal it is a 200,000-light-year-long chain of young blue stars. A supermassive black hole lies at the tip of the bridge at lower left. The black hole was ejected from the galaxy at upper right. It compressed gas in its wake to leave a long trail of young blue stars. Nothing like this has ever been seen before in the universe. This unusual event happened when the universe was approximately half its current age.

Credits

Science

NASA, ESA, Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)

Image Processing

Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

About The Object
Object Name RCP28
Object Description Runaway supermassive black hole
R.A. Position 40:25:51.30
Dec. Position -08:20:46.26
Constellation Ophiuchus
Distance 7.669 billion light years (z=0.964)
Dimensions Image is about 2.4 arcmin across (about 1.4 million light-years)
About The Data
Data Description The HST observations include those from program (P. van Dokkum)
Instrument ACS
Exposure Dates September 5, 2022
Filters F606W, F814W
About The Image
Color Info These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Two filters were used to sample wide wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F606W, Orange: F814W.
Compass Image A Hubble image of a black, deep-space field is speckled with white, yellow and reddish galaxies. At the lower left corner, one, lone star with four, prominent spikes appears. In the center of the image is a small, white-bordered, boxed area that contains one, long, thin, diagonal streak of whitish-blue stars. The diagonal line looks like a scratch on the photograph. It is positioned from near the bottom, left corner to the top right corner of the box. Two galaxies also reside within the box. One irregular-looking galaxy, in the top right corner, appears to be connected to the line. Another elliptical-looking galaxy appears in the bottom, right corner of the box. To the right of the small box is a larger white-bordered box that contains a magnified view of the contents of the smaller box. In this magnified view, a white knot appears prominently at the bottom tip of the stream of stars.
About The Object
Object Name A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
Object Description The type of astronomical object.
R.A. Position Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
Dec. Position Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
Constellation One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
Distance The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
Dimensions The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
About The Data
Data Description
  • Proposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
  • Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
Instrument The science instrument used to produce the data.
Exposure Dates The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
Filters The camera filters that were used in the science observations.
About The Image
Image Credit The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content.
Publication Date The date and time the release content became public.
Color Info A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.
Orientation The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere.

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