BEST VIEW YET OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN MERGING GALAXIES

A team of astronomers, including IfA’s David Sanders and former IfA postdoc Mike Koss, have used the W. M. Keck Observatory on Muanakea and the Hubble Space Telescope to complete the most detailed census of supermassive black holes in colliding galaxies. The team’s findings support the theory that galaxy mergers explain how some supermassive black holes become so monstrously large.