Huge Black Hole Catapulted Through Space

Two black holes begin to merge in an artist's illustration.

(foxnews) -- A colossal black hole has been spotted exiting its home galaxy, kicked out after a huge cosmic merger took place.

The event, seen for the first time, was announced last week.

When two colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought that the black holes at their cores may fuse together too.

Astronomers have theorized that the resulting energy release could propel the new black hole from its parent galaxy out into space, but no one has found such an event.

"We have observed the pre-merger stages of black holes," said Stefanie Komossa of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, part of the team that made the new discovery. "But we haven't seen the actual merger event."

Komossa and her team have now detected the consequences of such a merger: a 100-million-solar mass black hole in the process of leaving its home galaxy. full story