A Supermassive Black Hole in an Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy

Abstract

Ultracompact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) are among the densest stellar systems in the universe. These systems have masses up to 200 million solar masses, but half light radii of just 3-50 parsecs. Dynamical mass estimates show that many UCDs are more massive than expected from their luminosity. It remains unclear whether these high dynamical mass estimates are due to the presence of supermassive black holes or result from a non-standard stellar initial mass function that causes the average stellar mass to be higher than expected. Here we present the detection of a supermassive black hole in a massive UCD. Adaptive optics kinematic data of M60-UCD1 show a central velocity dispersion peak above 100 km/s and modest rotation. Dynamical modeling of these data reveals the presence of a supermassive black hole with mass of 21 million solar masses. This is 15% of the object's total mass. The high black hole mass and mass fraction suggest that M60-UCD1 is the stripped nucleus of a galaxy. Our analysis also shows that M60-UCD1's stellar mass is consistent with its luminosity, implying many other UCDs may also host supermassive black holes. This suggests a substantial population of previously unnoticed supermassive black holes.

arXiv commentAuthor's version of paper appearing in 18 September issue of Nature, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13762 ; 9 pages, 9 figures including methods & supplementary information sections

References in corpus (53)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
• The Optical and Near-Infrared Properties of Galaxies: I. Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions
• Parametric Recovery of Line-of-Sight Velocity Distributions from Absorption-Line Spectra of Galaxies via Penalized Likelihood
• A new extensive library of PHOENIX stellar atmospheres and synthetic spectra
• Adaptive spatial binning of integral-field spectroscopic data using Voronoi tessellations
• Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black Hole Masses and Host Galaxy Properties
• Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies
• A Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function? A Critical Look at Variations
• The formation of massive black holes through collision runaway in dense young star clusters
• A systematic variation of the stellar initial mass function in early-type galaxies
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies
• Dwarf Galaxies with Optical Signatures of Active Massive Black Holes
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. V. Measurement and Recalibration of Surface Brightness Fluctuations and a Precise Value of the Fornax--Virgo Relative Distance
• Measuring the inclination and mass-to-light ratio of axisymmetric galaxies via anisotropic Jeans models of stellar kinematics
• Efficient Multi-Gaussian Expansion of galaxies
• A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, and Their Host Galaxies
• Triaxial orbit based galaxy models with an application to the (apparent) decoupled core galaxy NGC 4365
• A class of compact dwarf galaxies from disruptive processes in galaxy clusters
• The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way: proper motions and mass
• An Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Globular Cluster G1: Improved Significance from New Keck and Hubble Space Telescope Observations
• Quantifying the Coexistence of Massive Black Holes and Dense Nuclear Star Clusters
• New Limits on an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri: II. Dynamical Models
• An Over-Massive Black Hole in the Compact Lenticular Galaxy NGC1277
• The Relationships Among Compact Stellar Systems: A Fresh View of Ultra Compact Dwarfs
• Low-mass black holes as the remnants of primordial black hole formation
• The NGC 404 Nucleus: Star Cluster and Possible Intermediate Mass Black Hole
• Age and metallicity gradients in early-type galaxies: A dwarf to giant sequence
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. VI. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster
• A top-heavy stellar initial mass function in starbursts as an explanation for the high mass-to-light ratios of ultra compact dwarf galaxies
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Triaxial Galaxies
• Star Clusters in M31: V. Internal Dynamical Trends: Some Troublesome, Some Reassuring
• Ultra compact dwarf galaxy formation by tidal stripping of nucleated dwarf galaxies
• AMUSE-Virgo II. Down-sizing in black hole accretion
• The Supermassive Black Hole and Dark Matter Halo of NGC 4649 (M60)
• Hypercompact Stellar Systems Around Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes
• On central black holes in ultra-compact dwarf galaxies
• The Densest Galaxy
• Low-mass X-ray binaries indicate a top-heavy stellar initial mass function in ultra compact dwarf galaxies
• Recovering the intrinsic shape of early-type galaxies
• Massive black hole seeds born via direct gas collapse in galaxy mergers: their properties, statistics and environment
• The specific frequencies of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies
• From Galaxy Clusters to Ultra-Faint Dwarf Spheroidals: A Fundamental Curve Connecting Dispersion-supported Galaxies to Their Dark Matter Halos
• Is the black hole in NGC1277 really over-massive?
• The absence of radio emission from the globular cluster G1
• Recovery of the internal orbital structure of galaxies
• A Dynamical N-body Model for the Central Region of $\omega$ Centauri
• Low-Mass AGN and Their Relation to the Fundamental Plane of Black Hole Accretion
• Spatially Resolved Kinematics of an Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxy
• Gas Accretion in the M32 Nucleus: Past & Present
• Testing Mass Determinations of Supermassive Black Holes via Stellar Kinematics
• A Wind Accretion Model for HLX-1

Cited by in corpus (186)

• Improving the full spectrum fitting method: accurate convolution with Gauss-Hermite functions
• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• Fast Radio Bursts: An Extragalactic Enigma
• Nuclear Star Clusters
• Primordial Black Holes as Generators of Cosmic Structures
• The cosmic evolution of massive black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation
• Unification of the Fundamental Plane and Super-Massive Black Holes Masses
• Masses and Scaling Relations for Nuclear Star Clusters, and their Coexistence with Central Black Holes
• Improved Dynamical Constraints on the Masses of the Central Black Holes in Nearby Low-mass Early-type Galactic Nuclei And the First Black Hole Determination for NGC 205
• A Population of Bona Fide Intermediate Mass Black Holes Identified as Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• A luminous X-ray outburst from an intermediate-mass black hole in an off-centre star cluster
• PeTar: a high-performance N-body code for modeling massive collisional stellar systems
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XXIII. Fundamentals of nuclear star clusters over seven decades in galaxy mass
• X-ray constraints on the local supermassive black hole occupation fraction
• Nearby Early-Type Galactic Nuclei at High Resolution: Dynamical Black Hole and Nuclear Star Cluster Mass Measurements
• Measuring the mass of the central black hole in the bulgeless galaxy NGC 4395 from gas dynamical modeling
• The (black hole)-bulge mass scaling relation at low masses
• Very high redshift quasars and the rapid emergence of super-massive black holes
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Evidence of the importance of AGN feedback in low-mass galaxies
• A population of intermediate-mass black holes in dwarf starburst galaxies up to redshift=1.5
• Stellar populations and star formation histories of the nuclear star clusters in six nearby galaxies
• The powerful jet of an off-nuclear intermediate-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 2276
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. The Kinematics of Ultra-compact Dwarfs and Globular Clusters in M87
• Detection of Supermassive Black Holes in Two Virgo Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxies
• The Most Massive Galaxies and Black Holes Allowed by $\Lambda$CDM
• Improved Dynamical Constraints on the Mass of the central Black Hole in NGC 404
• Anomalies in Physical Cosmology
• Hunting for Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
• Hunting for Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby Galaxies with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
• The Black Hole -- Bulge Mass Relation including Dwarf Galaxies Hosting Active Galactic Nuclei
• Hubble Space Telescope proper motion (HSTPROMO) catalogs of Galactic globular clusters. III. Dynamical distances and mass-to-light ratios
• The Accreted Nuclear Clusters of the Milky Way
• A 5x10^9 Solar Mass Black Hole in NGC 1277 from Adaptive Optics Spectroscopy
• The Structure of Nuclear Star Clusters in Nearby Late-type Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Imaging
• Origins and Demographics of Wandering Black Holes
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XIII. The Luminosity and Mass Function of Galaxies in the Core of the Virgo Cluster and the Contribution from Disrupted Satellites
• The Black Hole in the Most Massive Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy M59-UCD3
• A 3.5-million Solar Masses Black Hole in the Centre of the Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy Fornax UCD3
• The AIMSS Project III: The Stellar Populations of Compact Stellar Systems
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. X. Properties of Ultra-Compact Dwarfs in the M87, M49 and M60 Regions
• A deep view into the nucleus of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy with MUSE. I. Data and stellar population characterization
• Music from the heavens - Gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers in the EAGLE simulations
• Combining Stellar Populations with Orbit-Superposition Dynamical Modelling - the Formation History of the Lenticular Galaxy NGC 3115
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XII. Stellar Populations and Kinematics of Compact, Low-Mass Early-Type Galaxies from Gemini GMOS-IFU Spectroscopy
• Antimatter and antistars in the universe and in the Galaxy
• The Black Hole - Bulge Mass Relation in Megamaser Host Galaxies
• Diversity of nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms revealed by their star formation histories
• Star Clusters in Evolving Galaxies
• Virgo Redux: The Masses and Stellar Content of Nuclei in Early-Type Galaxies from Multi-Band Photometry and Spectroscopy
• Signature of an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Central Molecular Zone of Our Galaxy
• The Black Hole in the Compact, High-dispersion Galaxy NGC 1271
• Overmassive black holes in dwarf galaxies out to z$\sim$0.9 in the VIPERS survey
• Metal-poor nuclear star clusters in two dwarf galaxies near Centaurus A suggesting formation from the in-spiraling of globular clusters
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: The internal orbital structure and mass distribution of passive galaxies from triaxial orbit-superposition Schwarzschild models
• A quartet of black holes and a missing duo: probing the low-end of the Mbh - sigma relation with the adaptive optics assisted integral-field spectroscopy
• Six new supermassive black hole mass determinations from adaptive-optics assisted SINFONI observations
• Constraining ultra-compact dwarf galaxy formation with galaxy clusters in the local universe
• The formation of UCDs and massive GCs: Quasar-like objects for testing for a variable stellar initial mass function (IMF)
• The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes from Population III.1 Seeds. I. Cosmic Formation Histories and Clustering Properties
• The most massive black holes on the Fundamental Plane of Black Hole Accretion
• Detection of a $\sim$100,000 M${}_{\odot }$ black hole in M31's most massive globular cluster: A tidally stripped nucleus
• Globular cluster clustering and tidal features around ultra compact dwarf galaxies in the halo of NGC1399
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. VII. The intrinsic shapes of low-luminosity galaxies in the core of the Virgo cluster, and a comparison with the Local Group
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXIV. The Red Sequence to $\sim$10${}^6$ L${}_{\odot }$ and Comparisons with Galaxy Formation Models
• The impact of stripped Nuclei on the Super-Massive Black Hole number density in the local Universe
• JWST's PEARLS: Mothra, a new kaiju star at z=2.091 extremely magnified by MACS0416, and implications for dark matter models
• Observational Evidence for a Dark Side to NGC5128's Globular Cluster System
• Late time multi wavelength observations of Swift J1644+5734: A luminous optical/IR bump and quiescent X-ray emission
• On the radio properties of the intermediate-mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1
• Dozens of compact and high velocity-dispersion early-type galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The origin of compact galaxies with anomalously high black hole masses
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XXXIV. Ultra-Compact Dwarf (UCD) Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
• A Second Look at 12 Candidate Dual AGNs using $\mathtt{BAYMAX}$
• A deep view into the nucleus of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy with MUSE. II. Kinematic characterization of the stellar populations
• Upper limits on the presence of central massive black holes in two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in Centaurus A
• Infrared signature of active massive black holes in nearby dwarf galaxies
• An evolutionary continuum from nucleated dwarf galaxies to star clusters
• Constraints on Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves
• A Gaia-based catalog of candidate stripped nuclei and luminous globular clusters in the halo of Centaurus A
• The NANOGrav 11yr Data Set: Limits on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Galaxies within 500Mpc
• The benchmark black hole in NGC 4258: dynamical models from high-resolution two-dimensional stellar kinematics
• The rest-frame optical sizes of massive galaxies with suppressed star formation at $z\sim 4$
• Peculiar compact stellar systems in the Fornax cluster
• A Black Hole Mass Determination for the Compact Galaxy Mrk 1216
• The Most Massive Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster
• The MASSIVE Survey -- XV. A Stellar Dynamical Mass Measurement of the Supermassive Black Hole in Massive Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1453
• How elevated is the dynamical-to-stellar mass ratio of the ultra-compact dwarf S999?
• Stellar Population Properties of Ultracompact Dwarfs in M87: a Mass-metallicity Correlation Connecting Low-metallicity Globular Clusters and Compact Ellipticals
• The Nature of Ultra-diffuse Galaxies in Distant Massive Galaxy Clusters: Abell 370 in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• AGN on the move: A search for off-nuclear AGN from recoiling SMBHs and ongoing galaxy mergers with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Was 49b: An Overmassive AGN in a Merging Dwarf Galaxy?
• Triaxial Orbit-based Dynamical Modeling of Galaxies with Supermassive Black Holes and an Application to Massive Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1453
• Formation of the Andromeda Giant Stream: Asymmetric Structure and Disc Progenitor
• To the Edge of M87 and Beyond: Spectroscopy of Intracluster Globular Clusters and Ultra Compact Dwarfs in the Virgo Cluster
• On the formation mechanisms of compact elliptical galaxies
• Hiding in plain sight: record-breaking compact stellar systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• How AGN feedback drives the size growth of the first quasars
• Fermionic Dark Matter: Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
• Active Galactic Nuclei: Boon or Bane for Biota?
• A low upper mass limit for the central black hole in the late-type galaxy NGC 4414
• Supermassive black hole mass in the massive elliptical galaxy M87 from integral-field stellar dynamics using OASIS and MUSE with adaptive optics: assessing systematic uncertainties
• Globular Clusters, Ultracompact Dwarfs, and Dwarf Galaxies in Abell 2744 at the Redshift of 0.308
• A metal-poor ultra compact dwarf galaxy at a kiloparsec distance from the low-mass elliptical galaxy FCC47
• An Off-Nucleus Nonstellar Black Hole in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 5252
• Does the intermediate mass black hole in LEDA 87300 (RGG 118) follow the near-quadratic (M_bh)-(M_spheroid) relation?
• A SLUGGS and Gemini/GMOS combined study of the elliptical galaxy M60: wide-field photometry and kinematics of the globular cluster system
• Detection of Enhanced Central Mass-to-Light Ratios in Low-Mass Early-Type Galaxies: Evidence for Black Holes?
• The MBHBM${}^{\star }$ Project -- II. Molecular Gas Kinematics in the Lenticular Galaxy NGC 3593 Reveal a Supermassive Black Hole
• A search for active galactic nuclei in low-mass compact galaxies
• Discovery of the Candidate Off-nuclear Ultrasoft Hyper-luminous X-ray Source 3XMM J141711.1+522541
• The MASSIVE Survey -- XVII. A Triaxial Orbit-based Determination of the Black Hole Mass and Intrinsic Shape of Elliptical Galaxy NGC 2693
• Ultra-compact dwarfs beyond the centre of the Fornax galaxy cluster: Hints of UCD formation in low-density environments
• Do ultra compact dwarf galaxies form monolithically or as merged star cluster complexes?
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Environmental analysis of the orbital structures of passive galaxies
• The Second Nucleus of NGC 7727: Direct Evidence for the Formation and Evolution of an Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy
• First direct dynamical detection of a dual supermassive black hole system at sub-kiloparsec separation
• A consistency-test for determining whether ultra-compact dwarf galaxies could be the remnant nuclei of threshed galaxies
• Orbit-Superposition Dynamical Modeling of Barred Galaxies
• Is There a Fundamental Upper Limit to the Mass of a Star Cluster?
• Low-mass compact elliptical galaxies: spatially-resolved stellar populations and kinematics with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager
• Galaxies with monstrous black holes in galaxy cluster environments
• A model for GN-z11: top-heavy stellar initial mass functions in forming galactic nuclei and ultra-compact dwarfs
• Identifying Host Galaxies of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Found by PTAs
• Dynamical modelling of the twisted galaxy PGC 046832
• The slowest spinning X-ray pulsar in an extragalactic globular cluster
• Formation of ultra-compact blue dwarf galaxies and their evolution into nucleated dwarfs
• Dynamical Modeling of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Axisymmetry in Triaxial Schwarzschild Orbit Superposition Models
• From Seeds to Supermassive Black Holes: Capture, Growth, Migration, and Pairing in Dense Proto-Bulge Environments
• Constraints from dwarf galaxies on black hole seeding and growth models with current and future surveys
• A Very Large Array Search for Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters in M81
• A Comprehensive Archival Chandra Search for X-ray Emission from Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxies
• The Most Massive Active Galactic Nuclei at $1\lesssim z\lesssim 2$
• Starbursting Nuclei in Old Dwarf Galaxies
• Efficiency of black hole formation via collisions in stellar systems: An analysis of data from simulations and observations
• A catalogue sample of low mass galaxies observed in X-rays with central candidate black holes
• A million-solar-mass object detected at cosmological distance using gravitational imaging
• Contribution of stripped nuclei to the ultracompact dwarf galaxy population in the Virgo Cluster
• Calibrated, cosmological hydrodynamical simulations with variable IMFs II: Correlations between the IMF and global galaxy properties
• A Stacked Search for Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in 337 Extragalactic Star Clusters
• Multi-phase environment of compact galactic nuclei: the role of the Nuclear Star Cluster
• Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) Spectra of Globular Clusters and Ultra Compact Dwarfs in the Halo of M87
• Formation of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies from supergiant molecular clouds
• Surprisingly Strong K-band Emission Found in Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• Resolving the Discrepancy of Distance to M60, a Giant Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo
• SDSS J085431.18+173730.5: The First Compact Elliptical Galaxy Hosting an Active Nucleus
• Chandra Detection of Intra-cluster X-ray sources in Virgo
• Euclid preparation. LVIII. Detecting globular clusters in the Euclid survey
• Multi-wavelength observations of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2023fhn
• Discovery of a Bimodal Environmental Distribution of Compact Ellipticals in the Local Universe
• Kinematics of a globular cluster with an extended profile: NGC5694
• An Enhanced Massive Black Hole Occupation Fraction Predicted in Cluster Dwarf Galaxies
• Chandra Detection of X-ray Emission from Ultra-compact Dwarf Galaxies and Extended Star Clusters
• Testing the tidal stripping scenario of ultra-compact dwarf galaxy formation by using internal properties
• Stellar Properties of the Host Galaxy of an Ultraluminous X-ray Source in NGC 5252
• Formation of Transitional cE/UCD Galaxies through Massive/Dwarf Disc Galaxy Mergers
• Chandra Detection of Intra-cluster X-ray Sources in Fornax
• An empirical approach to selecting the first growing black hole seeds with JWST/NIRCam
• M32 Analogs? A Population of Massive Ultra Compact Dwarf and Compact Elliptical Galaxies in intermediate redshift CLASH Clusters
• Dark halo microphysics and massive black hole scaling relations in galaxies
• Nuclear X-ray Activity in Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies: Prospects for Constraining the Local Black Hole Occupation Fraction with a Chandra Successor Mission
• Distribution of star formation rates during the rapid assembly of NGC 1399 as deduced from its globular cluster system
• The Lost Dwarfs of Centaurus A and the Formation of its Dark Globular Clusters
• Ages and structural and dynamical parameters of two globular clusters in the M81 group
• The influence of mergers and ram-pressure stripping on black hole-bulge correlations
• The Properties of Nuclear Star Clusters and their Host Galaxies
• A search for intermediate-mass black holes in compact stellar systems through optical emissions from tidal disruption events
• Black Hole Scaling Relations in the Dwarf-galaxy Regime with $Gaia$-Sausage/Enceladus and $\omega$Centauri
• Formation of massive black holes in ultra-compact dwarf galaxies: migration of primordial intermediate-mass black holes in N-body simulation
• Sommerfeld enhancement of invisible dark matter annihilation in galaxies and galaxy clusters
• The creation of a massive UCD by tidal threshing from NGC 936
• One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog
• The contribution of supermassive black holes in stripped nuclei to the supermassive black hole population of UCDs and galaxy clusters
• A Wide Field Map of Ultra-Compact Dwarfs in the Coma Cluster
• Novel constraints on fermionic dark matter from galactic observables II: galaxy scaling relations
• A high occurrence of nuclear star clusters in faint Coma galaxies, and the roles of mass and environment
• The Milky Way's nuclear star cluster and massive black hole
• A population of luminous globular clusters and stripped nuclei with elevated mass to light ratios around NGC 5128
• Tracing black hole and galaxy growth across environments since cosmic noon
• A Search for Wandering Black Holes in the Milky Way with Gaia and DECaLS
• Stars older than the universe and possible mechanism of their creation
• Past, present and Future of the Scaling Relations of Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Using Machine Learning to Identify Extragalactic Globular Cluster Candidates from Ground-Based Photometric Surveys of M87
• Forming off-center massive black hole binaries in dwarf galaxies through Jacobi capture
• Resolved nuclear kinematics link the formation and growth of nuclear star clusters with the evolution of their early and late-type hosts
• The MOND Depth Index and Dynamical Maturity Clock: Toward a Universal Classification of Galaxies and Star Clusters
• Effect of dark matter halos on the orbital and escape dynamics of barred galaxies