B3 1715+425 is an astronomical radio source which is theorized to be a nearly naked black hole. [1]
B3 1715+425 was discovered during a systematic search for supermassive black holes (SMBH) by James Condon and his team at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in 2016. [2] Condon recalls how his team had been looking for “orbiting pairs of supermassive black holes, with one offset from the centre of a galaxy, as telltale evidence of a previous galaxy merger.” Instead, they found B3 1715+425. [1]
It is speculated that B3 1715+425 was originally enclosed by a host galaxy, like most other SMBHs. [3] Models predict that in most black hole collisions, the two objects will combine to form a larger black hole. [4] [5] However, in B3 1715+425‘s case, Condon speculates that a collision with a much larger galaxy resulted in most of the host galaxy for B3 1715+425 being pulled away, leaving it with a small remaining galaxy of diameter just 3,000 lightyears across (in comparison, the Milky Way Galaxy is 87,400 light years across). [1] [2] The galaxy responsible for removing most B3 1715+425's stars is an elliptical brightest cluster galaxy at the center of the ZwCl 8193 cluster. [1] The galaxy shows a distorted morphology and a starburst, probably as a result of the interaction with B3 1715+425. [1]
B3 1715+425 is an astronomical radio source which is theorized to be a nearly naked black hole. [1]
B3 1715+425 was discovered during a systematic search for supermassive black holes (SMBH) by James Condon and his team at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in 2016. [2] Condon recalls how his team had been looking for “orbiting pairs of supermassive black holes, with one offset from the centre of a galaxy, as telltale evidence of a previous galaxy merger.” Instead, they found B3 1715+425. [1]
It is speculated that B3 1715+425 was originally enclosed by a host galaxy, like most other SMBHs. [3] Models predict that in most black hole collisions, the two objects will combine to form a larger black hole. [4] [5] However, in B3 1715+425‘s case, Condon speculates that a collision with a much larger galaxy resulted in most of the host galaxy for B3 1715+425 being pulled away, leaving it with a small remaining galaxy of diameter just 3,000 lightyears across (in comparison, the Milky Way Galaxy is 87,400 light years across). [1] [2] The galaxy responsible for removing most B3 1715+425's stars is an elliptical brightest cluster galaxy at the center of the ZwCl 8193 cluster. [1] The galaxy shows a distorted morphology and a starburst, probably as a result of the interaction with B3 1715+425. [1]