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Runaway Supermassive Black Hole Illustration

This illustration shows a black field speckled with white, yellow and red galaxies. A black hole, near the left, bottom corner of the image, plows through space, leaving a diagonal trail of newborn stars stretching back to the black hole's parent galaxy.

This is an artist's impression of a runaway supermassive black hole that was ejected from its host galaxy as a result of a tussle between it and two other black holes. As the black hole plows through intergalactic space it compresses tenuous gas in front to it. This precipitates the birth of hot blue stars. This illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope observations of a 200,000-light-year-long "contrail" of stars behind an escaping black hole.

  • Release Date
    April 6, 2023
  • Science Release
    Hubble Sees Possible Runaway Black Hole Creating a Trail of Stars
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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  • Extended Description,
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Related Images & Videos

A Hubble image of a black, deep-space field is speckled with galaxies and one, lone star. In the center of the image is a small, white-bordered, boxed area that contains one, long, thin, diagonal streak of whitish-blue stars and two galaxies. To the right of the small box is a larger, white-bordered box that contains a magnified view of the contents of smaller box.

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...

A Hubble photograph of a curious linear feature on a deep-space field. The photograph is overlaid with a color key, scale bar, compass arrows, and two, white-bordered boxes showcasing the feature.

Runaway Black Hole Compass Image

This compass image shows a Hubble Space Telescope archival photo which 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...

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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