A new method to weigh giant black holes

The black hole in NGC 4649 is in a state where it does not appear to be rapidly pulling in material toward its event horizon, nor generating copious amounts of light as it grows. So, the presence and mass of the central black hole has to be studied more indirectly by tracking its effects on stars and gas surrounding it. This technique is well suited to black holes in this condition.

"Monster black holes such as this one power spectacular light shows in the distant, early universe, but not in the local universe," Humphrey said. "So, we can't wait to apply our new method to other nearby galaxies harboring such inconspicuous black holes."

These results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass. Additional information and images are available at: http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://chandra.nasa.gov.

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Jennifer Morcone
Marshall Space Flight Center
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Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
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