Monday, June 29, 2026
Science

The JWST finds more overmassive black holes. This time in dwarf galaxies

One of the things astronomers find when they look around at galaxies is a correlation between a galaxy's mass and the mass of its supermassive black hole. Contrary to popular belief, these SMBH don't anchor their galaxies; they make up only a small portion of a galaxy's mass. In local galaxies, the...

The JWST finds more overmassive black holes. This time in dwarf galaxies
Image: Phys.org
One of the things astronomers find when they look around at galaxies is a correlation between a galaxy's mass and the mass of its supermassive black hole. Contrary to popular belief, these SMBH don't anchor their galaxies; they make up only a small portion of a galaxy's mass. In local galaxies, the ratio of SMBH mass to galaxy mass is about 0.1%–0.5%.

Originally published at Phys.org

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