Rogue Blackโ Hole Discoveredโ Wanderingโ a Dwarf Galaxy
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a wandering, activelyโฃ accreting intermediate-mass black holeโ (IMBH) โlocated outside โthe center of a dwarf galaxy, a rareโฃ find offering new insights โขinto black hole growth and galactic evolution. Theโ black hole, residing in the galaxy MaNGA โ12772-12704, is approximatelyโ 300,000 times the mass of our Sun and lies 230 million light-years โaway.The discovery, published September 4, โค2025, in Science Bulletin, represents the โคnearest and most robustly confirmed case of an off-nuclear black hole with jets.
The โฃresearch team, led โคby Yuanqi Liu, identified theโฃ black hole through observations from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache โPoint Observatory โค(MaNGA) survey.The confirmation relied on what the โคresearchers termed “triple solid evidence”: aโ compact, high-brightness core, the detection of parsec-scale jets, and โdecades-long variability inโ its emissions. This combination distinguishes itโค from other potential candidates and solidifies its identification as an actively feeding black hole.
The discovery is meaningful due to the rarity of confirmed off-nuclear active galactic nuclei (AGN). Of the 628โ galaxies withinโข theโค MaNGA survey exhibiting possible AGN activity,โ only 62% showed offsets from their optical centers. However,MaNGA 12772-12704 was the sole galaxy to โmeet โall three criteriaโค for confirmation. As Dr. Mar Mezcua of the โฃInstituteโ of Space Sciences of Spain noted,obtainingโข clear observational evidence for wandering โAGN is “extremely difficult,” notably in dwarf โgalaxies.
Traditionally, black hole growth has been understood as a central process, withโค supermassive black โฃholes rapidly consuming gas at the cores of galaxies. This finding challenges โคthat model, demonstrating that an โคIMBH can sustain accretionโค and generate jets โคeven when displaced from the galactic nucleus. This supports the theoryโ of “distributed feeding” andโฃ “multi-site growth”โ as a viable pathway for the rapid formation of supermassive black holes in the early universe.
“This discovery prompts us to โrethink black hole-galaxy co-evolution,” explained Dr. An, a co-author of the study. “Black holes are โฃnotโ only central ‘engines’,โ thayโ may also quietly reshape their hostโฃ galaxies from the outskirts.” The energy injected intoโ the surrounding environment through powerful outflows from the โwandering black hole can influence โขgalactic dynamics andโค star formation.
Looking ahead, advancements in telescope technology promise to reveal a larger population of thes “lostโ black holes.” Extremely large optical telescopes will provide higher-precision measurements of galactic structures,while deep radio surveys utilizing facilities like the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Sphericalโข Telescope (FAST) core arrayโ and the โSquare Kilometre arrayโค will detect fainter radio โขsignals,perhaps โresolving even smaller jets. These โfuture observations could demonstrate that wandering black holes โare not uncommon, but rather play a significant, yet frequently enough unseen, role in cosmic evolution.
The study’s authors are Yuanqi Liu,โ Tao An, Mar Mezcua, Yingkang Zhang,โค Ailing Wang, Jun Yang, and Xiaopeng Cheng. The researchโ is detailed โinโข the paper “A jettedโ wandering massive blackโ hole candidateโฃ in โฃa dwarf galaxy” (DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.09.001).