Astrophysicists hunt for second-closest supermassive black hole

Astrophysicists hunt for second-closest supermassive black hole — ScienceDaily.
Two astrophysicists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have suggested a way to observe what could be the second-closest supermassive black hole to Earth: a behemoth 3 million times the mass of the Sun, hosted by the dwarf galaxy Leo I.
The supermassive black hole, labeled Leo I*, was first proposed by an independent team of astronomers in late 2021.
The team noticed stars picking up speed as they approached the center of the galaxy — evidence for a black hole — but directly imaging emission from the black hole was not possible.
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Now, CfA astrophysicists Fabio Pacucci and Avi Loeb suggest a new way to verify the supermassive black hole’s existence; their work is described in a study published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“Black holes are very elusive objects, and sometimes they enjoy playing hide-and-seek with us,” says Fabio Pacucci, lead author of the ApJ Letters study.