There's little secret about how conventional – if they can be called that – black holes form and grow. But new techniques that look for the effects supermassive black holes have on the interstellar objects around them, and even at the ripples they create in the fabric of space and time, are providing new clues.

Studying something that, by its nature is so dense that even light cannot escape from its centre, makes learning about it difficult. 'The prettiest galaxies are the ones that could help us solve the mystery of how these black holes grow.' 'The ideal galaxies for my study are the most beautiful, perfect spirals you could possibly think of,' says Becky Smethurst, a junior research fellow at the University of Oxford who studies supermassive black holes. This is where galaxy UCG 11700 could prove useful. Scientists believe almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its heart. While standard black holes start at around four times the mass of our Sun, their enormous relatives are millions, and sometimes billions, of times as massive. At the heart of this beautiful cosmic Catherine wheel is one of the most mysterious objects in the Universe – a supermassive black hole. For billions of years, the flocculent spiral arms of galaxy UCG 11700 have wheeled in peace, undisturbed by the collisions and mergers that have deformed so many other galaxies.īut while a spiral galaxy like UCG 11700 is pleasing to look at, something monstrous lurks in its midst. Halfway between the belly of Delphinus the Dolphin and the hind hoof of Pegasus the flying horse, a pristine pinwheel tumbles through space.

Dolphin supernova crack