Giant galaxies found to gain mass by consuming their smaller neighbours

(Examples of merging galaxies identified within the GAMA survey – Photo Credit: Professor Simon Driver/Dr Aaron Robotham/ICRAR)

A study by the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales has found that giant galaxies gain size not by creating more stars, but instead by eating their cosmic neighbours.

Hubble Space Telescope spots the smallest known galaxy containing a supermassive black hole

(M60-UCD1 – Photo Credit: NASA/ESA/CXC/J. Strader)

Astronomers, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, have discovered an unlikely cosmic object in a highly improbable location: a monster supermassive black hole located inside one of the smallest galaxies ever known.