NASA scientists have made a remarkable discovery of a sideways black hole in the galaxy NGC 5084, located approximately 80 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This lenticular galaxy has revealed a black hole that rotates in an unexpected direction relative to its surrounding structure.
The discovery was prompted by two plumes of plasma forming an unusual 'X' shape. This galactic structure, previously unseen by astronomers, provided insights into the galaxy's history. Pamela Marcum, an astrophysicist at Ames Research Center, noted the significance of detecting two pairs of X-ray plumes in one galaxy.
The researchers suspect that a dramatic event, possibly a collision with another galaxy, may have caused the black hole to tilt onto its side. The team employed a new image analysis technique called 'Selective Amplification of Ultra Noisy Astronomical Signal' (SAUNAS) to identify low-brightness X-ray emissions from the Chandra X-ray telescope.
Follow-up observations using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) confirmed the existence of a dusty ring of material at the center of NGC 5084, indicating the presence of the black hole at a 90-degree angle to the galaxy's plane.
Team leader Alejandro Serrano Borlaff described the process as piecing together a cosmic 'crime scene,' revealing that NGC 5084 has undergone significant changes in its recent past. The research, published on December 18 in the Astrophysical Journal, highlights the importance of archival data in uncovering new astronomical discoveries.